Estimation of groundwater recharge, water balance of small catchments in the High Tatra Mountains in hydrological year 2008

The work presented in this paper had two objectives: 1) estimation of groundwater recharge in the subcatchments of the upper Poprad river catchment and 2) comparison of water balance and hydrological reactions of nested catchments in the High Tatra Mountains in hydrological year 2008. Groundwater recharge was estimated from hydrograph separation by measn of the bflow filter. Long-term mean annual recharge varies between 121 and 536 mm. Annual water balance data in hydrological year of 2008 did not indicate significant differences within nested catchments with exception of the Poprad-Svit catchment. However, daily and hourly runoff data revealed different behavior of headwater areas compared to the whole catchments. Time delays between peakflows during high runoff events in July 2008 varied from 4 to 6 hours.