Author(s)

Lasha Asanidze^1*, Guranda Avkopashvili², Kukuri Tsikarishvili¹, Zaza Lezhava¹, Nino Chikhradze^1,3, Marika Avkopashvili⁴, Zurab Samkharadze⁵, Giorgi Chartolani¹

¹Department of Geomorphology and Geoecology, Vakhushti Bagrationi Institute of Geography, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
²Condensed Matter Physics Department, Andronikashvili Institute of Physics, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
³School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁴Department of Geography, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁵R. Agladze Institute of Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Karst groundwater is the major natural resource of drinking water for many countries in the world. Especially in karstic regions, karst water requirements for settlements are provided from karst aquifers. Also, we should consider, that karst groundwater is becoming more and more valuable for drinking water supply. Thus, karst groundwater quality and permanent ecological monitoring are very important for populations. Moreover, if we consider that the karst landscape is the extremely sensitive system towards anthropogenic activities, since exaclty the anthropogenic activities largely identify the karst water pollution-turbidity causing factors. This paper presents a new study regarding the quality of the karst groundwater of the study area, which contains important resource of drinking water. In the mentioned study, 12 water samples were collected from different locations of the 4 main karst springs (Krikhula, Dolabistavi, Kidobana and Sakishore) during the spring and summer of 2014 and 2015 years. The main aim was to identify chemical compositions (Ni, Ag, Co, Cd, Zn, Pb, Al, Mg, Fe, F, Cu), and also, it was important to detect Escherichia coli (E. coli). Our research regarding all these chemical compositions shows that all the values are low and under the environmental limit according to the Georgian standards. We measured chemical parameters of all these samples by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) in the chemical laboratory of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, country of Georgia.

Karst Water, Geoecological Monitoring, Limestone Massif, Georgia

Asanidze, L. , Avkopashvili, G. , Tsikarishvili, K. , Lezhava, Z. , Chikhradze, N. , Avkopashvili, M. , Samkharadze, Z. and Chartolani, G. (2017) Geoecological Monitoring of Karst Water in Georgia, Caucasus (Case Study of Racha Limestone Massif). Open Journal of Geology, 7, 822-829. doi: 10.4236/ojg.2017.76056.