Dr.Zhongcheng Jiang joined the Post Graduate Training Course on Groundwater Tracing Techiques in Institute of Hydrogeology and Geothermics at Graz city of Austria from August 18th to September 27th, 1997, sponsored by Republic of Austria and supported by UNESCO. There are 21 members from 16 countries in the course. Director of the course is Prof. Hans Zojer of the Institute of Hydrogeology and Geothermics.

The six-week-programme in the course includes: Lectures in classroom and exercises in the laboratory on hydrogeology,tracer technology and computer techniques in tracer hydrology; Field work on tracer experiments in Lurbach karst area and Styrian basin and soil water monitoring by lysmeter in different environments; and excursion on water supply and karst landforms around Alps.

The south Austria is in the Eastern Alps where form the most impressive landscape of Austria-Calcareous Alps, resulting from different types of limestones,dolomitic rocks and shales. Karst landforms develop in the Calcareous Alps, extending about 50 km wide from south to north and 500 km long from the outskirts of Vienna to the Rhatikon range. The field investigation of the course carried out mainly in Lurbach area on the north of Graz and Gurktaler Alpen on the north of Klagenfurt.

The karst features in Lurbach area is in 15 km north of Graz, and has a total area of about 25Km². Outcrop of rocks is Devonia limestone and is underlain by schists and phyllites of the same age. This is a karst massif, bordered by steep faults.The surface karst landforms is characterised by high,steep rocky hills along joint directions and some sinkholes in recharge area. With a recharge of allogenic water of large area, cave and karst spring are well developed along tectonic joints. For example, Lur cave, about 500 m long, is a good tourism cave, and links to the more than 2 km long Lurbach karst conduit; The Schmelzbach Spring and Hammerbach Spring have a mean discharge of 97 l/s and 192 l/s respectively. The basement of area is Mur River, about 300 m above sea level. Make a comparison with China, the karst features in Lurbach area is quite similar to Tumen area in Shandong Province where surface karst is simple but underground karst is well developed too. These two points have similar semihumid climate with a rainfall of about 800 mm, pure limestone and allogenic water pattern.

With a high altitude of more than 1000 m, the karst in Alps Mountains is different from Lurbach area. The solution is weak and physical weathering is strong. So no good karst landforms but some glacial forms and weathered peaks developed on the mountains(Fig.1 and 2) . However, on the plateau in the Gurktaler Alpen on the north of Klagenfurt, there are some typical dolines(Fig.3). The cause is that, the tectonic fissures and uplift massif gave a good base for development of groundwater; The allogenic water on the south flows into the massif and dissolve the limestone , which leads to underground karst conduits; collapses of the surface land above the conduits lead to formation of dolines.

Fig.1 Asian students in high mountain of Alps

Fig.3 Doline in a massif in the Gurktaler Alpen

Water supply and Ecology in Karst Area of South Austria

Karst area in south Austria is benefit for water supply and ecology. Karst water is considered as one of the most important resources of water supply in Austria. Because karst water is limpid and has good quality. Vienna city, the capital of Austria, using a water tube of 180 km long to take karst water from Alps in the southwest, though there is a lot of water in Danube River and Quaternary underground water near the city.

Generally, There are forests in karst area of south Austria. There are many kinds of trees, which has a sharp contrast with non-karst area(Fig.4). In Fig.4, the mountains covered with forests consist of limestone, and the part of grassland is underlain by shale. Similar phenomena are popular in south Austria, which is quite different from south China where a serious rock desertification happens in karst area but good forests in non-karst area.

The presentation in the end of the course by Dr.Zhongcheng Jiang

The topic of presentation in the end of the course by Dr.Zhongcheng Jiang is "The Features and Problems of Karst hydrogeology in Fengcong Karst of South China". With many slides and pictures, Dr.Jiang introduced the marvellous fengcong (peak cluster ) karst, the hydrogeological features of fengcong karst, especially the water cycle for two times in karst aquifers, and the shortage in soil, water and vegetation resources in the karst area. At the end of his speech he said that he got a lot of new idea from this course, and the tracer technology was very useful in investigation of the karst area in south China.

Dr.Jiang finished the course with a excellent grade(Fig.5)

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