Use of mean residence time and flowrate of thermal waters to evaluate the volume of reservoir water contributing to the natural discharge and the related geothermal reservoir volume. Application to Northern Thailand hot springs

Even though the uncertainties on both Vw and Vres are relatively high, the simple approach used here may be used to evaluate geothermal resources during the exploration stage. The obtained Vres may be used in the volume method of geothermal resource assessment (which is usually utilized to evaluate the productive potential of unexploited and minimally exploited geothermal fields) and may be compared with the Vres estimated by means of other approaches.