Avaliação da vulnerabilidade e do risco à contaminação das águas subterrâneas da bacia hidrográfica do Rio gramame (Pb) / Assessment of vulnerability and risk to contamination of Gramame basin river groundwater (Paraíba, Brazil)

Abstract

The contamination vulnerability maps of groundwater, created with help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are being increasingly used to support environmental management plans of governmental and non-governmental organizations. This paper shows the mapping of vulnerable areas to contamination of the free aquifer of Gramame river basin (BRG in Portuguese). The methods DRASTIC and modified DRASTIC were the tools used in this research. These methods calculate the vulnerability index based on the sum of environmental parameters. The DRASTIC considers seven factors: Depth to water, net Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone and hydraulic Conductivity, whereas the modified DRASTIC considers also the land use and land cover factors. The results show that the DRASTIC, for the rainy season, identified three vulnerability classes (low, moderate and high) for the study area, with a predominance of moderate class. For the dry period, the vulnerability had basically two vulnerability classes: low and moderate. When the land use and land cover factors where considered, areas of high vulnerability became very high level, and areas of moderate vulnerability became high risk class of contamination. The DRASTIC application shows the importance of the use of GIS’s in groundwater protection to risk of contamination.

Keywords

• DRASTIC; GIS's; vulnerability; groundwater.