DRISTPI, a new groundwater vulnerability mapping method for use in karstic and non-karstic aquifers

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method, called DRISTPI, to evaluate the intrinsic vulnerability to contamination of different types of aquifers. Taking the DRASTIC method as a starting point, we highlight the need to define two scenarios to differentiate karst materials from the rest of the study area. The changes made in DRISTPI, with respect to DRASTIC, include the elimination of factors that are mainly related to the movement of water through the saturated zone of the aquifer (the original A and C factors) because the aim of this new method is to protect the groundwater (the resource) rather than the water supply (the source). Furthermore, the DRISTPI method incorporates a new factor called PI to characterize areas of preferential infiltration. Specifically, the vulnerability of two European aquifers with different geological, hydrogeological and climatic characteristics was evaluated using the DRISTPI method, and the results were compared with those obtained using DRASTIC, PI, COP, the Slovene Approach and PaPRIKa methods. These results were statistically analysed by confronting spatial autocorrelation coefficients to measure the cross-correlation between pairs of vulnerability maps.

A Novel Approach to Harmonize Vulnerability Assessment in Carbonate and Detrital Aquifers at Basin Scale

“…The most frequently employed methods are the index-based approaches [9,10] of which DRASTIC (D: Depth to water; R: Net recharge; A: Aquifer media; S: Soil media; T: Topography; I: Impact of vadose zone; C: Hydraulic conductivity) [9] is the most common. DRASTIC has been applied to various types of aquifer, though some authors have revealed that it is not suitable for assessing vulnerability in some karstic aquifers [10][11][12][13].…”

“…In this context, recent research studies have attempted to adapt the DRASTIC method to karst aquifers in recent years [12,[27][28][29][30]. Some of these [12,28,29] modified DRASTIC by including and/or removing parameters to account for karst characteristics.…”

First Steps into an Integrated Karst Aquifer Vulnerability Approach (IKAV). Intrinsic Groundwater Vulnerability Analysis of the Yucatan Karst, Mexico

“…Methodologies like the Slovene approach take into account precipitation analyzed in terms of volume, intensity and extreme events [15]. Other methodologies like KARSTIC and DRISTPi consider recharge as a parameter derived from precipitation regimes [16,17]. Nevertheless, vulnerability assessment in tropical areas, with pronounced seasonal precipitation patterns, can be over/under estimated since precipitation ratings from the before mentioned methods are based on year averages.…”

“…DRISTPi allows the re-assignment and modification of weights. More detailed information about this method can be found in the work of Jiménez-Madrid et al[17].…”

Assessment of factors affecting the intrinsic vulnerability of groundwater rated by the mean residence time estimation method

“…Al though the results ob tained with the in dex meth ods are qual i ta tive, they are still com monly used world wide, es pe cially via the very ef fec tive DRASTIC method (e.g., Krogulec, 2006;Ró¿kowski, 2007;Saidi et al, 2011Saidi et al, , 2017Khemiri et al, 2013;Krogulec and Trzeciak, 2016). This method has been im proved and ad justed to com plex hydrogeological con di tions (Witkowski et al, 2003;Yu et al, 2012;Jiménez-Ma drid et al, 2013;Hernández-Espriú et al, 2014;Kazakis and Voudouris, 2015;Bonfanti et al, 2016;He et al, 2018). Com bined meth ods gen er at ing a qual i ta tive result are also used (Gemitzi et al, 2006;Civita, 2010).…”