Local Scale Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Using GIS-Based DRASTIC Model, Emphasis on Groundwater Quality

Groundwater vulnerability assessment is a basic work for groundwater exploitation and protection. The Chaoyang district of Beijing was selected and investigated in this study. Groundwater vulnerability index system in Chaoyang district was constructed based on hydrogeological settings of local region, the human influence and the DRASTIC model. The comprehensive vulnerability assessment was carried out with weights of 0.4 and 0.6 for the intrinsic vulnerability and the specific vulnerability, respectively. In this study, total 9 hydrogeological parameters were considered, and the diagram of groundwater vulnerability assessment results in Chaoyang District was obtained by using DRASTIC index and overlay weighted method. The groundwater quality is poor in the southwest of Chaoyang District. The correlation analysis between total hardness, total dissolved solids and vulnerability results was carried out, and the correlation results were 06 and 0.7, respectively. The area with high groundwater vulnerability is also the regions with serious groundwater pollution, indicating that the assessment results are objective and reasonable, which can provide prevention and control of groundwater reference for the management department in the future, so as to reduce the risk of pollution.

Denitrification in Intrinsic and Specific Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment: A Review

Several groundwater vulnerability methodologies have been implemented throughout the years to face the increasing worldwide groundwater pollution, ranging from simple rating methodologies to complex numerical, statistical, and hybrid methods. Most of these methods have been used to evaluate groundwater vulnerability to nitrate, which is considered the major groundwater contaminant worldwide. Together with dilution, the degradation of nitrate via denitrification has been acknowledged as a process that can reduce reactive nitrogen mass loading rates in both deep and shallow aquifers. Thus, denitrification should be included in groundwater vulnerability studies and integrated into the various methodologies. This work reviewed the way in which denitrification has been considered within the vulnerability assessment methods and how it could increase the reliability of the overall results. Rating and statistical methods often disregard or indirectly incorporate denitrification, while numerical models make use of kinetic reactions that are able to quantify the spatial and temporal variations of denitrification rates. Nevertheless, the rating methods are still the most utilized, due to their linear structures, especially in watershed studies. More efforts should be paid in future studies to implement, calibrate, and validate user-friendly vulnerability assessment methods that are able to deal with denitrification capacity and rates at large spatial and temporal scales.

An Evaluation of Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Methods in a Rapidly Urbanizing City: Evidence From Dakar, Senegal

In rapidly growing cities in the tropics, unregulated urban development presents a major risk to groundwater quality. Here, we assess the vulnerability of an unconfined aquifer of Quaternary sands in the Thiaroye area of Dakar (Senegal) to contamination using four GIS-based indices (DRASTIC, DRASTIC_N, SINTACS, SI). Our correlation of assessed vulnerability to observed impact is semi-quantitative, relating observed groundwater quality, based on nitrate concentrations and tryptophan-like fluorescence to vulnerability degrees (i.e. coincidence rates). We show that considerably more of the Thiaroye area has a “very high vulnerability” according to SI (36%) relative to DRASTIC (5%) and SINTACS (9%); “high vulnerability” is estimated using DRASTIC_N (100%), DRASTIC (66%) and SINTACS (69%). Single-parameter sensitivity tests show that groundwater depth, soil, topography, land use and redox parameters strongly influence assessments of groundwater vulnerability. Correlation with observed nitrate concentrations reveals aquifer vulnerability is better represented by SI (coincidence rates of 56%) relative to DRASTIC_N (43%), SINTACS (38%) and DRASTIC (34%). The underestimation of groundwater vulnerability in Dakar using DRASTIC, DRASTIC_N and SINTACS is attributed to their reliance on an assumed capacity of the unsaturated zone to attenuate surface or near-surface contaminant loading, which in the low-income (Thiaroye) area of Dakar is thin and affords limited protection. The inclusion of a land-use parameter in SI improves the characterization of groundwater vulnerability in this low-income, rapidly urbanizing area of Dakar.

Groundwater vulnerability assessment and mapping in shallow groundwater

The increasing population density can contaminate groundwater. So far, groundwater is still the primary source to fulfill clean water and drinking water in Muntilan, Salam, and Ngluwar Sub-District. Studies on groundwater vulnerability are essential to minimize the contamination risks as a piece of basic information for land use planning. This research aims to assess groundwater vulnerability in Muntilan, Salam, and Ngluwar Sub-District. The simple vertical vulnerability (SVV) method with GIS was selected to develop a groundwater vulnerability map. The parameters of this method consist of the type of soil/rock, the thickness of the water-unsaturated zone, and the recharge value. The results show that the research area can be divided into three vulnerability classes: very low, moderate, and high groundwater vulnerability. Very low groundwater vulnerability has a value of more than 70 with very high protection effectiveness. The class is distributed in Muntilan and Salam Sub-Districts. Moderate groundwater vulnerability has a value less than 35 to 65 with moderate protection effectiveness, and high groundwater vulnerability has a value ranging from 24 to 35 with low protection effectiveness. Both of the class is evenly distributed in Muntilan, Ngluwar and Salam Sub-Districts.

Application of the APLIS Method for Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in Rote Island Karst Areas

The karst area on Rote Island dominates more than 60% of the Island. The land surface conditions in karst areas are generally dry, while below the subsurface is the potential for abundant water resources. This study aims to assess groundwater vulnerability using the APLIS (Altitude, Pendiete/Slope, Lithology, Infiltration, and Soils) method that will integrate with Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. The parameters used are elevation, slope, lithology, infiltration zone, and soil type. Slope and elevation are obtained from DEM maps, the soil is obtained from soil type maps, while lithology and infiltration zone are obtained from geological maps. The lithology and the infiltration zone in APLIS method analysis have a high role in determining the level of groundwater vulnerability. The groundwater vulnerability in Rote Island was divided into four classes: very low in the Northeast, low in the South, moderate in the East and North, and high in the East and West part of the Island. It explains that a high level of groundwater vulnerability in Rote Island needs to be used as a groundwater protection zone.

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

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.