Aquifer vulnerability assessment in a semi-arid zone of Iran

Abstract

The importance of water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions is more evident due to the limitation of water resources, and the preparation of water resources is necessary to protect and reduce the vulnerability of these resources. Therefore, in this study, considering the vulnerability of water and soil resources in arid and semi-arid regions and the geographical structure of Zagros inland basins, the Izadkhast plain from the south of Fars province was selected to investigate the vulnerability of water resources. For this purpose, six parameters of water depth, net feed, aquifer environment, soil texture, topography, and hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer were analyzed using the DRASTIC model. The results showed that almost 50% of the plains were in the high vulnerability class, and 28% were in the very high vulnerability class. In the east and center of the plain, places with high vulnerability to pollutants and contaminated water were found. The effect of the formations in the east of the basin can be seen because, at the outlet of the rivers in the east of the basin, the amount of sulfate has increased dramatically, which indicates the presence of evaporate formations with gypsum. In the center of the basin, the heavy texture of the soil, the low slope, and the accumulation of most of the water entering the basin, some of which have a lot of salts, have increased the vulnerability of this part. Another result of this study is that the DRASTIC model has high efficiency in evaluating vulnerabilities similar to this research.

Keywords

• drastic
• geomorphology
• groundwater
• izadkhast plain
• vulnerability