Abstract
KARMA (Karst Aquifer Resources availability and quality in the Mediterranean Area) is a European project that aims to achieve substantial progress with respect to the hydrogeological understanding and sustainable management of Mediterranean karst water resources at various temporal and spatial scales. WP4 proposes new approaches to the characterization and hydrodynamic modelling of karst systems, based on conceptual models, neural networks, and physical models. The aim is to build distributed parameter models to simulate different karst hydrodynamics. Distributed parameter models allow to understand not only the principal processes that dominate the overall behaviour of these karst systems, but also the localized hydrodynamics which might come with a better prediction of underground water contamination. This document addresses Task 4.3 (Development of physically-based numerical models). In the direction of developing physically-based numerical models for karst hydrodynamics, a number of progresses have been made so far. These contributions are developed within the framework of KARMA project and are summarized below.