Typology and hydrogeochemistry of karst springs in the southern coast of Albania

Abstract

The southern Albania coast, about 147 km-long, represents one of the most developing areas of the country for tourism and local economy. There are, however, serious problems as concerns water supply. Due to the karst nature of the territory, groundwater is the only remaining promising resource. The aim of this research is to describe the main characteristics and influencing factors on karst groundwater quantity and quality and the drainage type in the study area. In general, the area is very rich on groundwater resources; the estimated total renewable karst water resources are about 21.5 m3/s. Based upon the different geological-structural conditions and the development of karst processes, their drainage occurs in different ways. Five main types of drainage can be distinguished along the Southern Albanian coast: a) overflowing springs, b) descending springs, c) coastal springs, d) submarine spring, and e) diffuse drainage. As regards water quality, only the overflowing springs have a good quality, due to the presence of impervious rocks isolating freshwater from the sea water. Good-quality springs represent 28% of the total discharge of karst water resources drained to the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. In addition, the situation become more difficult because about 83% of fresh quality karst water resources drain along a 1.5 km-long coastal strip located in the northernmost sector of the studied area. Beside this, the strong increase in population, particularly during the summer due to tourism activities, as well as construction of new urban areas, are the main sources of likely pollution for some of the good-quality springs. The high anthropic pressure on groundwater resources increases the seawater intrusion phenomena, reducing the available freshwater resource and, at specific areas, contributing to spring salinization.

Karst Brackish Springs of Albania

“…In particular, along the Adriatic Sea several springs and sinkhole features associated with mixing between freshwater and sea water characterize the Apulian coastlines [71][72][73][74][75][76]. This is also the case in most of the southern rocky coast of Albania where distributed drainage is spread in the three areas of Karaburun, Palasë-Qeparoi, and Ksamil-Gjuza (Figure 1) [28,77,78].…”

“…In the Korab gypsum, there are two types of karst groundwater streams with very different physico-chemical qualities [32]. [27,28]).…”