scholarly journals Groundwater vulnerability assessment: from overlay methods to statistical methods in the Lombardy Plain area

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Stevenazzi ◽  
Marco Masetti ◽  
Giovanni Pietro Beretta
Keyword(s):  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Plain Area ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps

Groundwater is among the most important freshwater resources. Worldwide, aquifers are experiencing an increasing threat of pollution from urbanization, industrial development, agricultural activities and mining enterprise. Thus, practical actions, strategies and solutions to protect groundwater from these anthropogenic sources are widely required. The most efficient tool, which helps supporting land use planning, while protecting groundwater from contamination, is represented by groundwater vulnerability assessment. Over the years, several methods assessing groundwater vulnerability have been developed: overlay and index methods, statistical and process-based methods. All methods are means to synthesize complex hydrogeological information into a unique document, which is a groundwater vulnerability map, useable by planners, decision and policy makers, geoscientists and the public. Although it is not possible to identify an approach which could be the best one for all situations, the final product should always be scientific defensible, meaningful and reliable. Nevertheless, various methods may produce very different results at any given site. Thus, reasons for similarities and differences need to be deeply investigated. This study demonstrates the reliability and flexibility of a spatial statistical method to assess groundwater vulnerability to contamination at a regional scale. The Lombardy Plain case study is particularly interesting for its long history of groundwater monitoring (quality and quantity), availability of hydrogeological data, and combined presence of various anthropogenic sources of contamination. Recent updates of the regional water protection plan have raised the necessity of realizing more flexible, reliable and accurate groundwater vulnerability maps. A comparison of groundwater vulnerability maps obtained through different approaches and developed in a time span of several years has demonstrated the relevance of the continuous scientific progress, recognizing strengths and weaknesses of each research.

scholarly journals Groundwater vulnerability assessment with using GIS in Hamadan–Bahar plain, Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Balal Oroji
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Drastic Model ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Basic Purpose

Abstract Vulnerability assessment to delineate areas that are more susceptible to contamination from anthropogenic sources has become an important element for sensible resource management and land use planning. It has been recognized for its ability to delineate areas that are more likely than others to become contaminated as a result of anthropogenic activities near the earth’s surface. The main methods of mapping and assessing intrinsic vulnerability in porous media are the following: SI, GOD, SINTACS and DRASTIC. The basic purpose of these maps is to divide an area into more classes, each of which will represent a different dynamic for a specific purpose and use. These models have been used to map groundwater vulnerability to pollution in Hamadan–Bahar aquifer. The results showed in models of DRASTIC, SI, GOD and SINTACS, respectively, 7.1, 44.21, 29.56 and 20.16 percent of the areas are high potential vulnerabilities. According to the model DRASTIC at study area, 33.6% of has a low class of groundwater vulnerability to contamination, whereas a total of 29.4% of the study area has a moderate vulnerability. The final results indicate that the aquifer system in the interested area is relatively protected from contamination on the groundwater surface. The correlation between models shows that DRASTIC model has the highest CI, which is 141, and the GOD model has the highest CI, which is 139. Also, the highest CI for SINTACS and SI is 137 and 136, respectively. Therefore, DRASTIC model is the best model among these models for predicting groundwater vulnerability in Hamadan–Bahar plain aquifer.

scholarly journals Vulnerability Assessment as a Basis for Sanitary Zone Delineation of Karst Groundwater Sources—Blederija Spring Case Study

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 2775
Author(s):  
Vladimir Živanović ◽  
Nebojša Atanacković ◽  
Saša Stojadinović
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Karst Groundwater ◽  
Karst Spring ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Protection Zones ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps ◽  
Dependent Model

The application of groundwater vulnerability methods has great importance for the sanitary protection zones delineation of karstic sources. Source vulnerability assessment of karst groundwater has mainly relied on the European approach (European Cooperation in Science and Technology—COST action 620), which includes analysis of the K factor, which refers to water flow through the saturated zone of the karst system. In the paper, two approaches to groundwater vulnerability assessment have been applied, COP + K and TDM (Time-Dependent Model) methods, to produce the most suitable source vulnerability map that can be transformed into sanitary protection zones maps. Both methods were tested on the case example of Blederija karst spring in Eastern Serbia. This spring represents a classical karst spring with allogenic and autogenic recharge. Dual aquifer recharge points out the necessity for the inclusion of the vulnerability assessment method created especially for the assessment of karst groundwater. Obtained vulnerability maps show similar results, particularly in the spring and the ponor areas, and these zones are most important for future protection. The COP + K method brings out three vulnerability classes that can be directly transformed into three sanitary protection zones. Contrary to the previous one, the TDM method uses water travel time as a vulnerability degree. The results show that the final map can be easily used to define sanitary zones considering different national legislation.

scholarly journals DRASTICAI, a New Index for Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment—A Portuguese Case Study

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Teresa Albuquerque ◽  
Natália Roque ◽  
Joana Rodrigues ◽  
Margarida Antunes ◽  
Catarina Silva
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps

Groundwater vulnerability assessment has become a useful tool for groundwater pollution prevention. Groundwater vulnerability maps provide useful data for protecting groundwater resources. Identification of agricultural patterns is an important issue for optimized land management. The watershed of the Tagus River is the backbone of this study. Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark, in the central interior of Portugal, corresponds to a rural area. Intensive agricultural practices showed an increasing trend in the last decades. The method that is most used internationally to assess vulnerability is the DRASTIC index. In this study, the DRASTICAI index is introduced. A new attribute—anthropogenic influence—is added here. Five levels of increasing vulnerability, from low to high, can be recognized here. The municipality of Idanha-a-Nova is most affected by intensive agricultural activities, showing spatial patterns of DRASTICAI with a clear influence of anthropogenic activities, with high needs for groundwater abstraction. A robust assessment of groundwater quality has a key role. Climate change scenarios and water scarcity are important issues in the coming years, and particularly in the studied area. Therefore, optimized groundwater management is essential to consider in policy-making strategies.

scholarly journals The Importance of Incorporating Denitrification in the Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianluigi Busico ◽  
Nerantzis Kazakis ◽  
Nicolò Colombani ◽  
Khabat Khosravi ◽  
Konstantinos Voudouris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Domestic Wastewater ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Nitrogen Loads ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps ◽  
Nitrate Vulnerability ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Human activities are deeply connected with groundwater reservoirs, so protecting them from pollution has become a priority in many regions of the world. Nitrate is considered the main groundwater pollutant since it is directly linked to many human activities. Agricultural activities and domestic wastewater have been identified as the main sources of nitrate in groundwater. Nevertheless, there are some natural processes that can mitigate nitrate pollution. Together with dilution processes, the degradation of nitrate through denitrification has been acknowledge as a process that can potentially reduce nitrogen loads, in both deep and shallow aquifers. Usually these processes were not properly quantified in vulnerability assessment methods, until the introduction of LOS indices. In this study, the application of the LOS indices on 4 agricultural areas is discussed, highlighting how the LOS indices can identify portions of the landscape with higher potential denitrification and how they directly enhance the groundwater vulnerability assessment. Previous studies have shown that LOS indices are a valuable tool for proper vulnerability assessment to nitrate, however they need to be coupled with other parameters that also describe nitrate behavior in groundwater. The SINTACS-SVN and DRASTIC-PA methods that include the LOS indices, were applied for the first time in the Epanomi coastal area to evaluate the reliably of the assessment and, despite the different classes range and the weights applied, similar groundwater vulnerability assessment maps were obtained. The nitrate vulnerability maps were comparable with the observed nitrate concentrations and were found to be highly comparable with original LOS maps. Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that vulnerability methods are only screening tools and groundwater quality observations are pivotal information for environmental management.

scholarly journals DRASTICAI, a New Index for Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment – A Portuguese Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Albuquerque ◽  
Natália Roque ◽  
Joana Rodrigues ◽  
Margarida Antunes ◽  
Catarina Silva
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Intensive Farming ◽  
Tagus River ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps ◽  
To Come

Groundwater vulnerability assessment has become a useful tool for groundwater pollution pre-vention. Groundwater vulnerability maps provide useful data to protect groundwater resources. The identification of agricultural patterns is an important issue for optimized land management. The Tagus river watershed is the backbone of this survey. Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark, in central inland Portugal, corresponds to a rural territory. Intensive agricultural practices showed a rising tendency in the last decades. The most internationally used method for vulnerability evaluation is the DRASTIC index. In this survey, the DRASTICAI index is introduced. A new at-tribute - Anthropogenic Influence - is here added. Five levels of growing vulnerability, from low to high, can be here acknowledged. Idanha-a-Nova municipality is the most affected by intensive farming activities. A robust assessment of groundwater quality has a key role. Climate change scenarios and water scarcity are important issues in years to come. Therefore, optimized groundwater management is essential to consider in policy-making strategies.

scholarly journals A review of groundwater vulnerability assessment in Kenya

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Halake Guyo Rendilicha
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Groundwater Quality ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Groundwater Pollution ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Preventive Strategy ◽  
Groundwater Availability ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment

Groundwater represents 95% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater. The use of groundwater has significantly increased over the past 50 years and is expected to rise in future due to its high reliability during drought seasons, good quality, generally modest development costs and continuous depletion of surface water. Groundwater pollution is becoming a major threat to fresh groundwater availability and sustainability. The deteriorating groundwater quality and increasing contamination poses detrimental risk to human health and ecosystem in many ways, thereby necessitating the need to study the groundwater vulnerability assessment as a preventive strategy to protect the groundwater from surface pollution. The concept of groundwater vulnerability assessment is dated back in 1970s and applied in many developed countries as an environmental tool used for proper land use planning and decision making without jeopardizing groundwater quality.  This paper is a detail review of available literature on the study of groundwater vulnerability assessment in Kenya. The paper revealed that, the vulnerability assessment concept has not been applied as a mechanism to prevent groundwater pollution, hence rarely used in guiding land use planning in Kenya. This review brings to limelight the importance of groundwater vulnerability assessment in management and protection of groundwater resources in Kenya.*Corresponding author; Email:[email protected] Mobile: 0710953283.1. Soil, Water and Environmental Engineering Department Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya

TFM-ext tool for the groundwater vulnerability assessment within LandSupport project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Basile ◽  
Fabio Terribile ◽  
Marialaura Bancheri ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Travel Times ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
The Mean ◽  
One Year

<p>Geo-Spatial Decision Support Systems (S-DSS) can be usefully employed to support the acquisition, management, and processing of both static and dynamic data (e.g., daily climate), data visualization, and computer on-the-fly applications in order to perform simulation modelling all potentially accessible via the Web. S-DSS are becoming more popular by providing operational tools to a large community of end-users and policy-makers for a sustainable landscape management (i.e. for both agriculture and environmental protection) at different spatial and temporal scales.</p><p>The scope of this work is to present the implementation of the extended Transfer Function Model (TFM-ext) – described in a companion abstract presented in the same session – as an operative tool for the groundwater vulnerability assessment within the larger S-DSS developed for LandSupport H2020 project (https://www.landsupport.eu).</p><p>The tool allows to simulate the mean travel times of a generic solute at different spatio-temporal scales (from the local to the regional scale), considering different land uses.</p><p>In particular, operatively, the end-user can evaluate the filtering capacity of the soils, by: i) defining the region of interest; ii) defining the simulation period; iii) choosing between 6 different land use scenarios (bare soil, alpha-alpha, maize, vine, olive and wheat) or consider his/her own management scenario; iv) defining the depth of interest at which evaluate the solute arrival.</p><p>The outputs are i) the mean travel times that the input solute (given as a fertilizer concentration related to the land-use scenario) takes to reach the defined depth and ii) the quantity of the input solute that reaches the defined depth after one year from its injection.</p><p>The latter information is then associated to the filtering capacity of the soil, which are thus classified according to the percentage of input mass arrived after one year.</p><p>The model was implemented as open source Java application, following the standard of the flexibility to changes and to future expansions, of the optimized computational demand and parallelization, required by the project.</p><p>Three local scale cases are available at the moment (Telesina Valley-IT, Marchfeld-AT and Zala County-HU). Future developments will aim to apply TFM-ext towards larger European spatial extent areas (e.g. regional scales). Furthermore, future develoments  will aim to support selected implementations of Water Framework and Nitrates directives, especially with respect to the systematic required mapping revision of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone and the adoption of best practice.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals An Open Source GIS-Based Application for the Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Pollution

Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia Duarte ◽  
Jorge Espinha Marques ◽  
Ana Cláudia Teodoro
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Map Comparison ◽  
Open Source Gis ◽  
Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Vulnerability Maps ◽  
Serra Da Estrela

Groundwater is a crucial natural resource for regular socio-economic function. Groundwater vulnerability to pollution can be assessed through Geographical Information System (GIS)-based qualitative methods. GIS-based tools, dedicated to the assessment of groundwater vulnerability, usually present several limitations, such as high cost, unavailable code, and a lack of functionality concerning the flexible application of vulnerability indices and vulnerability map comparison. The objective of this work was to create a new GIS-based open source application for groundwater vulnerability assessment, GVTool, developed using QGIS software, with the capability of creating and comparing groundwater vulnerability maps considering four different methods: DRASTIC, GOD, SINTACS, and Susceptibility Index (SI). This application incorporates features from a previous tool, DRASTIC Model, and new functionalities were included, namely three additional vulnerability assessment methods, map comparative analysis, map statistics, and index interval reclassification and symbology definition. The GVTool functionalities and capabilities are illustrated through a groundwater vulnerability assessment in Serra da Estrela mountain (Central Portugal). GVTool is mostly useful in integrated assessments, helping to verify if the groundwater vulnerability maps are accurate and to decide which is the most suitable method or the combination of methods to express groundwater vulnerability to pollution in a specific area.

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