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Vulnerability to Contamination of Karst Aquifers

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Karst Aquifers—Characterization and Engineering

Part of the book series: Professional Practice in Earth Sciences ((PRES))

Abstract

The karst aquifers are especially vulnerable to pollution due to their hydrological behavior derived from karstification. The vulnerability mapping is one of the most applied tools to protect them. There is a wide range of methodologies for vulnerability mapping that have been developed for karst aquifer, to consider the specific characteristics of karst into the vulnerability assessment, such as EPIK, PI, COP, Slovene Approach and PaPRIKa, among others. The vulnerability map can help the water stakeholder for decision-making and to promote a land-use management compatible with the water protection. So the maps should have reliable accuracy. Many works highlight that the maps of groundwater contamination vulnerability obtained from different methods differ significantly, although they were all obtained by methods developed for karst aquifers or they are obtained from the same source of information and applied by the same person. So, the validation is an essential element of any contamination vulnerability assessment. The current challenge of researchers is to obtain versatile and easy methods to test and validate vulnerability maps.

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Acknowledgments

This work is a contribution to the projects CGL2012-32590 of DGICYT and IGCP 598 of UNESCO and to Research Group RNM-308 funded by the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Hydrogeology, Department of Geology, University of Málaga (CEHIUMA), 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Ana I. Marín

  2. European Topic Centre for Spatial Information and Analysis (ETC/SIA), University of Málaga, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Bartolomé Andreo

Authors
  1. Ana I. Marín
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  2. Bartolomé Andreo
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Correspondence to Ana I. Marín .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrogeology, Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade, Centre for Karst Hydrogeology, Belgrade, Serbia

    Zoran Stevanović

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Marín, A.I., Andreo, B. (2015). Vulnerability to Contamination of Karst Aquifers. In: Stevanović, Z. (eds) Karst Aquifers—Characterization and Engineering. Professional Practice in Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12850-4_8

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