Variabilités spatiale et temporelle des débits et de la géochimie des cours d'eau cévenols du bassin versant des Gardons (Gard, France) : contribution à l'analyse des basses eaux

Abstract

The increase in the severity of hydrological droughts in the Mediterranean basin in relation to climate change leads to the need to better understand the origin of the water resource to improve its management. The defined study area, the Cevennes upper watershed of the Gardons, presents quite significant variations in terms of low water flows. This article questions these differences and proposes to explain these variances in flows not by a rainfall difference but by a variation in the contribution of the geological reservoirs present in the different watersheds.The study was conducted mainly during the summers of 2018 and 2019 where flows and geochemistry of surface water and groundwater were monitored in 9 watersheds. The use of mixing model in addition to this geochemical-hydrological coupling allows to quantify the contribution of the different formations and shows strong contrast between them. At low water, two formations, black micaschists and limestone, appear to be essential to sustain the flow: they would feed the streams studied to the extent of 41 and 17 % respectively, while they cover only 13 and 8 % of the considered area. The analysis of the contribution of the respective geological formations allows to explain the observed specific discharge of the rivers in the study area.This information of contribution in low water coupled with the flow allows to identify the most productive reservoirs and could help to prioritize the protection of these in view of the scarcity of the resource that will result from climate change.

Keywords

• hydrology
• low flow
• geochemistry
• groundwater
• end member mixing model (G-EMMA)
• spatial and temporal approach