Data-Driven Analysis of Discharge Variations at Mercure Spring South Italy

Mercure Spring is the spillway of the carbonatic karst aquifer hosted in the north-western side on Mount Pollino (South Italy). An evolutionary data-driven paradigm is here used in order to model spring response to rainfall. The proposed analysis shows how to reliably model the short-term discharge variations of Mercure spring and that variations are related to quite short underground flow-paths, and medium length flow-paths. All the obtained results are structurally simple and the involved terms are really similar. Finally, the identified models are consistent with past studies and with the hydrogeological characteristics of the aquifer.