• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.105-120
• /
• 2016

Most of riverside in Korea, in case of application of water curtain cultivation (WCC) technique, has been inveterately suffering from the gradual drawdown of groundwater level and related shortage of water resources during the WCC peak time. We believe that the water resources issue in these riverside areas can be effectively solved when the interaction between groundwater and nearby surface water is well understood. To investigate the connection between stream and ground water, and the influence of stream water on the nearby aquifer, this study examined the water temperature and oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopic compositions. The study area is well-known strawberry field applying the WCC technique in Sangdae-ri, Gadeok-myon, Cheongju City, and the sampling was done from February 2012 through June 2014 for stream and ground water. Some groundwater wells near stream showed big temporal variations in water temperature, and their oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes showed similar compositions to those of adjacent stream water. This indicates that the influence of stream water is highly reflected in the stable isotopic composition of groundwater. Four cross-sectional lines from stream to hillside were established in the study area to determine the spatial differences in water quality of wells. At the late stage of WCC in February to March, groundwater of wells in line with short cross-sectional length showed the narrow range of isotopic compositions; however, those in the long cross-sectional line showed a wide compositional range. It was shown that the influence of the stream water at the late WCC stage have reached to the distance of 160 to 165 m from stream line, which is equivalent to the whole length and one-third point in each short and long cross-sectional line, respectively. Therefore, the wide compositional range in the long cross-sectional lines was not only due to the influence of stream water, but apparently resulted from the change of relative impact of each groundwater supplying from two or more aquifers. In view of stable isotopic compositions, there seems to be three different aquifers in this study area, which is competing for dominance of water quality in wells at each period of WCC.