Many rivers in tropical and subtropical karst regions are supersaturated with respect to CaCO3 and have high water hardness. After flowing through waterfall sites, river water is usually softened, accompanied by tufa formation, which is simply described as a result of water turbulence in fast-flowing water. In this paper, a series of laboratory experiments are designed to simulate the hydrological conditions at waterfall sites. The influences of air-water interface, water flow velocity, aeration and solid-water interface on water softening are compared and evaluated on a quantitative basis. The results show that the enhanced inorganic CO2 outgassing due to sudden hydrological changes occurring at waterfall sites is the principal cause of water softening at waterfall sites. Both air-water interface area and water flow velocity increase as a result of the "aeration effect", "low pressure effect" and "jet-flow effect" at waterfall sites, which greatly accelerates CO2 outgassing and therefore makes natural waters become highly supersaturated with respect to CaCO3, consequently resulting in much CaCO3 deposition and reduction of water hardness. Aeration, rapidly increasing air-water interface area and water flow velocity, proves to be effective in reducing water hardness. This study may provide a cheap, safe and effective way to soften water.