Karst and karst water recourses of Albania and their management
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Karst and karst water recourses of Albania and their management Romeo Eftimi1 Accepted: 21 May 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract
Albania is situated in the western part of Balkan Peninsula, on the eastern coast of the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea, which is one of the most water−rich regions of the world. The karst landscape in Albania covers about 2750 k m2 consisting of nearly 24% of the countries territory. Karstic aquifers are the richest in the country. The total renewable karst water resources represent about 80% of the groundwater resources of Albania and nearly 80% of the population of the cities, including the capital Tirana, are supplied by karst water, and important resource is used for the production of the electricity. The sustainable management of karst water resource is difficult due to the high heterogeneity of karst aquifers in terms of type and development of hydraulic porosity, flow velocities, hydraulic head, recharge type and quantity, karst water quality, as well as to the high vulnerability to the human impact. Keywords Karst morphology · Karst water · Recharge of karst aquifers · Karst water quality · Isotope methods · Albania
Introduction
Geography and geology of karst aquifers
Karst aquifers for many Mediterranean countries consist the most important aquifers, or the second one after the aquifers with intergranular porosity. Margat (1998) estimates that carbonate outcrops cover at least 15% of the surface Mediterranean catchment area and the carbonate aquifers supply at least 25% of the domestic water supply, while in in global scale, 9.2% of population is supplied by freshwater from karts (Stevanovic 2019). In Albania, the karst aquifers cover 24% of the country territory and nearly 80% of the population of the cities are supplied by karst water. Karst rocks and aquifer systems provide the largest springs and they consist of the most important source of drinking water supply comparing with the other aquifers of the country. Figure 1 shows a map of the location of karst rocks and karst springs of Albania. The present paper is an overview of the main karst water of Albania; it describes the distribution of the karst rocks and of karst phenomenon, water budget, karst water hydrology and springs, groundwater chemistry and physical aspects of karst rocks, isotope methods of investigation, and karst water resources and their sustainable management.
Albania is situated in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, on the eastern coast of the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea (Fig. 1). The total surface of Albania reaches 28,748 km2 and the population 3.2 million. The country is mainly mountainous with the main elevation of 764 m above sea level (asl); many peaks higher than 2000 masl are located in the inner part of the country and associate mostly with karst areas. The climate is typical Mediterranean. The annual mean air temperature varies between 15 and 16 °C in the coastal and around 10 °C in mountainous areas. The mean precipitation
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