Dye tracing is an efficient method for spring watershed delineation, but is also used in surface waters to assess pollution migration over several kilometers. The aim of this study is to develop a simple and parsimonious approach that accounts for a linear relationship between dispersivity and scale that could be used for the simulation of large-scale transport processes in aquifers. The analysis of 583 tracer recoveries is used to validate an inverse relationship between arrival time and peak concentration, which is shown to be a consequence of the linear relationship between dispersivity and scale. These results show that the tracer displacement through a given tracing system can be characterized at a large scale by a constant Peclet number. This interpretation is used to propose a new approach for tracer test design based on the analytical expression of the peak/time factor. It is also used for Peclet number assessment and simulation of the whole tracer residence-time distribution using a new method based on the ratio between the mode of the residence time distribution (h_mod) and the corresponding time from injection (t_mod), which is called the h_mod/t_mod method. This methodology is applied to two tracer tests carried out in a karst aquifer over 13 km between the same injection and detection points under distinct hydrological conditions. These results found practical applications in generalizing tracer test results to various flow conditions, or guiding the parameterization of physically-based vulnerability mapping methods.

染料示踪是春季流域划分的一种有效方法，但也用于地表水中以评估数公里内的污染物迁移。这项研究的目的是开发一种简单而简约的方法，该方法考虑了分散度和水垢之间的线性关系，可用于模拟含水层中的大规模运输过程。对583种示踪剂回收率的分析用于验证到达时间与峰浓度之间的反比关系，这表明是分散度与规模之间线性关系的结果。这些结果表明，通过给定的跟踪系统，示踪剂的位移可以通过恒定的Peclet数进行大规模表征。该解释用于基于峰值/时间因子的解析表达式为示踪剂测试设计提出一种新方法。它也可以用于Peclet数评估和整个示踪剂停留时间分布的模拟，这是一种基于停留时间分布模式之间比值的新方法（h _mod）和相应的注入时间（t _mod），这称为h _mod / t _mod方法。该方法适用于在不同的水文条件下，在相同的注入点和检测点之间的岩溶含水层中，在13公里以上的岩溶含水层中进行的两次示踪剂测试。这些结果在将示踪剂测试结果推广到各种流动条件或指导基于物理的漏洞映射方法的参数化方面找到了实际应用。