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An operational methodology for determining relevant DRASTIC factors and their relative weights in the assessment of aquifer vulnerability to contamination

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Abstract

The DRASTIC index used to assess the vulnerability of aquifers to contamination, has been subject to various adjustments to improve its reliability. These adjustments include adding and/or eliminating certain aquifer factors and modifying the factor weights. Nonetheless, there is no consensus about which factors, or their respective weights, are most important for assessing aquifer vulnerability. In the present study, we propose an operational methodology that: (1) identifies the relevant factors for assessing aquifer vulnerability to contamination; and (2) determines the relative importance of the selected factors. We applied this approach to a large data set of granular aquifers from a region in Canada, which includes information for DRASTIC factors, combined with groundwater quality and land-use data. We found that for our study region, topography (terrain-slope) is an irrelevant factor for assessing the vulnerability of aquifers to contamination. On the other hand, the relevant factors ranked according to their relative importance (from highest to lowest), are (1) water table depth; (2) hydraulic conductivity; (3) characteristics of vadose zone materials; and (4) recharge. Our approach can serve as an initial step for identifying the relevant aquifer factors when assessing aquifer vulnerability and determining the relative importance of the relevant factors to validate weights attributed to these factors. Our methodology can help adapt index-based methods of aquifer vulnerability assessment to a range of study regions.

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Supplementary data (Appendix 1) that supports the finding of this study can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09575-w

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for funding this project (Grant TGPIN-2020-04721).

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This project is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant RGPIN-2020-04721).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département des Sciences Appliquées, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Saguenay, Québec, G7H 2B1, Canada

    Lamine Boumaiza, Julien Walter, Romain Chesnaux & Alain Rouleau

  2. Centre d’études sur les Ressources Minérales, Groupe de Recherche Risque Ressource Eau, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Saguenay, Québec, G7H 2B1, Canada

    Lamine Boumaiza, Julien Walter, Romain Chesnaux & Alain Rouleau

  3. Hydrogeology Group, Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, 12249, Berlin, Germany

    Karthikeyan Brindha

  4. Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai, 600 025, India

    Lakshmanan Elango

  5. Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059, Krakow, Poland

    Przemyslaw Wachniew

  6. Institute for Soil Physics and Rural Water Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Christine Stumpp

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  1. Lamine Boumaiza
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Boumaiza, L., Walter, J., Chesnaux, R. et al. An operational methodology for determining relevant DRASTIC factors and their relative weights in the assessment of aquifer vulnerability to contamination. Environ Earth Sci 80, 281 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09575-w

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