Karst water resources in a changing world: Review of hydrological modeling approaches

TLDR

Karst aquifers cover 7–12 % of continental land and supply water to about a quarter of the global population, yet climate projections predict rising temperatures and falling precipitation in many such regions, and few studies have quantified these impacts. This review introduces karst systems, their evolution, and distinctive hydrological processes. The authors examine conceptual karst models and their translation into numerical models of varying complexity, highlighting data availability constraints and limitations of current approaches. The review proposes new research directions for improved predictive models, data collection opportunities, and large‑scale karst model applications to address key water‑resource management challenges.

Abstract

Karst regions represent 7–12% of the Earth's continental area, and about one quarter of the global population is completely or partially dependent on drinking water from karst aquifers. Climate simulations project a strong increase in temperature and a decrease of precipitation in many karst regions in the world over the next decades. Despite this potentially bleak future, few studies specifically quantify the impact of climate change on karst water resources. This review provides an introduction to karst, its evolution, and its particular hydrological processes. We explore different conceptual models of karst systems and how they can be translated into numerical models of varying complexity and therefore varying data requirements and depths of process representation. We discuss limitations of current karst models and show that at the present state, we face a challenge in terms of data availability and information content of the available data. We conclude by providing new research directions to develop and evaluate better prediction models to address the most challenging problems of karst water resources management, including opportunities for data collection and for karst model applications at so far unprecedented scales.