Assessing River Runoff Components in the Mountain Crimea. 1. The Runoff of Small Rivers

Water runoff components were evaluated for experimental river basins in the Mountain Crimea based on a two-tracer mixing model with three recharge sources. The identified recharge sources for river runoff in karstified catchments were found to include: epikarstic waters, soil-slope waters, and baseflow waters, circulating at the contact with underlying impermeable rocks. Epikarstic waters account for a considerable portion of the runoff of small rivers. Their proportions in the outlet sections increase during floods and steadily increase with an increase in water discharge, obeying logarithmic relationships. The proportions of baseflow water decrease compared with those of epikarstic waters.