SOURCE: A Semi-automatic Tool for Spring Monitoring Data Analysis and Aquifer Characterization

Abstract It has become increasingly necessary to optimise mountain groundwater resource management and comprehend resource recharging systems from a hydrogeological perspective in order to formulate adequate resource protection strategies. Analysing mountain spring behaviour and aquifer characteristics can be time consuming, so new automated techniques and software tools are needed to estimate hydrogeological parameters and understand exhaustion dynamics of groundwater resources. This paper introduces SOURCE, a new semi-automatic tool that automates the hydrogeological characterisation of water springs and provides proper estimations of the vulnerability index, as well as autocorrelation and cross-correlation statistical coefficients. SOURCE rapidly processed input data from the Mascognaz 1 spring (Aosta Valley) water probes and meteorological station to provide graphical outputs and values for the main hydrodynamic parameters. Having a single software package that contains all the main methods of water spring analysis could potentially reduce analysis times from a few days to a few hours.