Water balance of Mediterranean karst soil in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a water conservation and erosion control factor

AbstractThis research was carried out in the locality of Dubljani in Popovo Polje, which is one of a series of typical Dinaric karstic poljes situated within the Mediterranean part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previous research has shown that the Mediterranean part of Bosnia and Herzegovina has the largest surplus and deficit of water at the same time. Because of this, we wanted to explore how much of the water goes to drainage runoff, and then how slope affects the surface runoff. The ultimate goal was to find a way to conserve water and prevent erosion in these natural conditions. Precipitation, drainage runoff, surface runoff and soil erosion were measured at the agro-hydrological station during the experimental period with the goal of understanding the problem of water erosion intensity. In order to study the relationship between precipitation and drainage runoff, six lysimeters with different soil depths were installed (1.3 m, 1.0 m, 0.5 m, 0.3 m and one karst simulation). In addition, six metal casset...