Time-input,an innovative groundwater-vulnerability assessment scheme: application to an alpine test site

The time-input method provides a new approach to evaluating groundwater vulnerability especially in mountainous areas. Its main factors are: (1) the travel time from the surface to groundwater (about 60%) enhanced by (2) the amount of input as groundwater recharge (about 40%). In contrast to other assessment schemes comparable to this method, the vulnerability is expressed in real time and not classified by dimensionless numbers with the advantage that the credibility of results is easier to check and the evaluation process is more transparent. The Index-Method was applied in a well-studied forested dolomitic karst area in the front range of the Austrian Northern Calcareous Alps. The aspect and the dip of the bedding planes towards or away from the groundwater have been included in this method. These are additional to the traditionally chosen investigation layers such as vegetation, slope inclination, thickness of soil, unconsolidated sediment and unsaturated rock, and fault zones.