Development

Sen­sors for tem­pe­ra­ture, pres­sure, CO2, air velo­ci­ty and some­times other para­me­ters (e.g. radon) are nee­ded to unders­tand the under­ground cli­mate and varia­tions in water levels.

Most ins­tru­ments on the mar­ket per­form poor­ly in this deman­ding envi­ron­ment (very high humi­di­ty, aqua­tic and/or mud­dy condi­tions, lack of elec­tri­ci­ty, etc.). The SISKA deve­lops and tests its ins­tru­ments in the field and deve­lops solu­tions adap­ted to each case of stu­dy.

The SISKA deve­lops and pro­poses spe­ci­fic methods for cha­rac­te­ri­sing and mana­ging the kars­tic envi­ron­ment.

Water resources

Unders­tan­ding karst ground­wa­ter requires a 3D assess­ment of the geo­lo­gy. KARSYS is a deduc­tive approach based on the geo­lo­gy of a site and the hydrau­lic prin­ciples gover­ning kars­ti­fi­ca­tion. Once a site is defi­ned, SISKA deploys a 4 step approach : (1) iden­ti­fying the kars­tic pro­per­ties of the aqui­fers, (2) esta­bli­shing a 3D geo­lo­gi­cal model of aqui­fer units, (3) gene­ra­ting a 3D hydro­geo­lo­gi­cal model through inte­gra­tion of hydro­lo­gi­cal data and (4) iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and deli­mi­ta­tion of flow sys­tems.
This results in :

• the deli­mi­ta­tion of spring basins ;
• the volu­me­tric assess­ment of ground­wa­ter resources ;
• a model of under­ground water flow paths.

The func­tio­na­li­ty of Visual­KAR­SYS,the online ser­vice for buil­ding and vie­wing KARSYS models, is constant­ly being impro­ved.

Recent deve­lop­ments also aim to inte­grate the results of KARSYS into the data model defi­ned by the Confe­de­ra­tion.

SISKA deve­lops and applies Karst­MOD (hydro­lo­gi­cal and hydrau­lic models) to simu­late ground­wa­ter dyna­mics and thus assess recharge (effec­tive infil­tra­tion), sto­rage, and discharge from one or more out­lets.

Water protection

At the request of the Fede­ral Office for the Envi­ron­ment (FOEN), SISKA has fini­shed upda­ting the EPIK method for asses­sing the vul­ne­ra­bi­li­ty of water catch­ments to pol­lu­tion. The pro­cess includes the deve­lop­ment of pro­to­cols for map­ping soil thi­ck­ness and water infil­tra­tion in karst (karst map).

Instabilities

Kars­tA­LEA pro­vides geo­lo­gists with a prac­ti­cal method for asses­sing kars­ti­fi­ca­tion. While ini­tial­ly deve­lo­ped for tun­ne­ling, it has been exten­ded to pre­dict insta­bi­li­ties and col­lapses. The method conti­nues to evolve with each new appli­ca­tion.

Kars­tA­LEA : Prac­ti­cal ins­truc­tions to down­load