Water resource characteristics of epikarst spring in rocky desertification area — A case study in Longhe, Guangxi, China

Epikarst water is the main source for drink and irrigation in karst fengcong depression area in southwest china. Investigating, exploring and utilizing epikarst water is a hot issues for scholars in recent years. The epikarst spring in the Longhe rocky desertification area in SW China was selected for this study. Continuous auto-monitoring of the spring's discharge and rainfall had been done from 2003 to 2005. The results indicated that Flux of epikarst springs is small and will stop flow in a long time and has a sensitive response to rainfall, at the same time,epikarst springs Water resource in epikarst area distribute unequably in different season. The storage and derivation technique, which is a economice, effective and universal way, distribute widely in karst mountain area in SW china. At the same time, adding forest coverge in catchment area, developing water conservation forest, enhancing the regulation and storage ability of epikarst zone to water cycle, increasing water resources of epikarst springs and extending its flow time are the basic way of advancing the effective utilization of epikarst water resources.