N. Nur Ozyurt

LUMPED: a Visual Basic code of lumped-parameter models for mean residence time analyses of groundwater systems

A Microsoft® Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft Corporation, 1987-1998) code of 15 lumped-parameter models is presented for the analysis of mean residence time in aquifers. Groundwater flow systems obeying plug and exponential flow models and their combinations of parallel or serial connection can be simulated by these steady-state models which may include complications such as bypass flow and dead volume. Each model accepts tritium, krypton-85, chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) as environmental tracer. Retardation of gas tracers in the unsaturated zone and their degradation in the flow system may also be accounted for. The executable code has been tested to run under Windows 95 or higher operating systems. The results of comparisons between other comparable codes are discussed and the limitations are indicated.

Characterization of the Gacka River basin karst aquifer (Croatia): hydrochemistry, stable isotopes and tritium-based mean residence times.

The Gacka River basin aquifer is a highly-developed karst system, located in the Croatian Dinarides. It is mostly composed of permeable Jurassic and Cretaceous carbonate rocks, and clastic sedimentary rocks of Paleogene age. Gacka River provides high quality water for the town of Otočac and several villages; together with the neighboring Lika River, the water is used for the Hydroelectric Power Plant at Senj on the coast. About 10 perennial and over 20 seasonal springs are located at 450 to 460 ma.s.l. (above sea level). Three major springs (Pećina, Majerovo and Tonkovića) provide 57% of the mean annual river flow. Similarities between the average groundwater temperatures as well as between the average specific electrical conductivity values (9.0°C-328 μS/cm, 9.6°C-350 μS/cm and 8.9°C-312 μS/cm) of the springs imply that they are fed from aquifers with similar mean residence times (MRTs). The mean δ(18)O contents of Majerovo, Tonkovića, and Pećina are around -10.1‰, -9.2‰ and -8.9‰, respectively, revealing differences in the mean recharge area elevations. Compared to the temporal amplitude of the(18)O signal of precipitation, the (18)O signal variations of the springs are substantially attenuated because the recharges occurring at different times are well mixed within the aquifers. This indicates MRTs of more than just a few years. The average tritium contents of Pećina, Majerovo and Tonkovića are 5.48 TU, 6.13 TU and 6.17 TU, respectively. Serially connected exponential-plug type unsteady lumped-parameter models run on an annual time scale resulted in rather satisfactory matches between the observed and calculated tritium contents for all studied springs. The models revealed similar MRTs (and corresponding reservoir volumes) for Pećina, Tonkovića and Majerovo of 12 years (470 Mm(3)), 12 years (1,190 Mm(3)), and 12.2 years (1,210 Mm(3)), respectively. Plug flow conditions dominate in about 90% of the total aquifer volumes.

Application of Chebyshev theorem to data preparation in landslide susceptibility mapping studies: an example from Yenice (Karabük, Turkey) region

Landslide database construction is one of the most crucial stages of the landslide susceptibility mapping studies. Although there are many techniques for preparing landslide database in the literature, representative data selection from huge data sets is a challenging, and, to some extent, a subjective task. Thus, in order to produce reliable landslide susceptibility maps, data-driven, objective and representative database construction is a very important stage for these maps. This study mainly focuses on a landslide database construction task. In this study, it was aimed at building a representative landslide database extraction approach by using Chebyshev theorem to evaluate landslide susceptibility in a landslide prone area in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey. The study area was divided into two different parts such as training (Basin 1) and testing areas (Basin 2). A total of nine parameters such as topographical elevation, slope, aspect, planar and profile curvatures, stream power index, distance to drainage, normalized difference vegetation index and topographical wetness index were used in the study. Next, frequency distributions of the considered parameters in both landslide and nonlandslide areas were extracted using different sampling strategies, and a total of nine different landslide databases were obtained. Of these, eight databases were gathered by the methodology proposed by this study based on different standard deviations and algebraic multiplication of raster parameter maps. To evaluate landslide susceptibility, Artificial Neural Network method was used in the study area considering the different landslide and nonlandslide data. Finally, to assess the performances of the so-produced landslide susceptibility maps based on nine data sets, Area Under Curve (AUC) approach was implemented both in Basin 1 and Basin 2. The best performances (the greatest AUC values) were gathered by the landslide susceptibility map produced by two standard deviation database extracted by the Chebyshev theorem, as 0.873 and 0.761, respectively. Results revealed that the methodology proposed by this study is a powerful and objective approach in landslide susceptibility mapping.

Geodynamic Control of Hypogene Karst Development in Central Anatolia, Turkey

Hypogene karst development in central Anatolia, Turkey is represented by unique collapse dolines (obruks) developed mainly in Neogene lacustrine limestone formations. Many of these obruks are located in two separate rectilinear zones, one of which appears to mark the suture zone between Tauride-Anatolian and Sakarya Zone tectonic blocks of the Anatolian plate. The other zone coincides with the alignment of three dormant volcanoes. Formation of obruks seems to be associated with upwelling of carbon dioxide released from deep-rooted igneous activity sources along these zones since Late Miocene. Formation of obruks still continues today, whereas the size of recent collapses is much smaller than ancient examples probably due to weakening volcanism. Recent obruk formations are observed in an area where the youngest volcanic activity seems to have occurred. Frequency of obruk formation increased in recent years because of the groundwater’s accelerating piezometric head decline. The stable carbon and noble gas isotope data previously obtained from regional groundwater samples suggested both crustal and mantle sources for the carbon dioxide required for obruk formation. It seems likely that many of the large-scale karst cavity-collapse structures in the world are linked with excessive carbon dioxide release from mantle in orogenic plateaus like central Anatolia.