ABSTRACT

Only 10% of the total groundwater resources in the southwest karst area of China is used. Approaches to exploration, utilisation and management, should be based on good understanding the karst aquifer. The palaeozoic carbonate rocks are characterised as old, hard and weakly porous. Karst hydrogeological media are highly heterogenous with many different lithologies including: limestone, dolomite, mixed limestone/dolomite. These lithologies are often intercalated or in alternation with clastic rocks. Spatial distribution of lithology impacts groundwater flow. This chapter considers four case studies of karst groundwater exploitation by underground dams: damming groundwater flow to form a groundwater reservoir and construction of a grout curtain to stop the flow and transfer the ground water to a reservoir.