TITLE:
Assessment and Mapping of Groundwater Vulnerability Using SAR Concentrations and GIS: A Case Study in Al-Mafraq, Jordan
AUTHORS:
Majed Ibrahim, Barbara Koch
KEYWORDS:
Land Use, Groundwater, DRASTIC Index, GIS, SAR
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.7 No.7,
May
27,
2015
ABSTRACT: Groundwater is the main source of water supply in Jordan. Due to lower
precipitation rates in recent years, the surface water is increasingly limited.
Research on groundwater vulnerability helps protect this main source of water
supply and assists in the development of plans to confront the deterioration
and contamination of aquifers from wastewater and agricultural activities in
order to protect groundwater for future generations. The important factors to
determine groundwater vulnerability are environmental conditions; hence the
spatial conditions in arid to semi-arid areas must be taken into account when
applying different models. The aquifer vulnerability has been assessed in
Jordan by using the DRASTIC method; remote sensing and Geographic Information
System (GIS) data were used to derive and process data. The DRASTIC index was
used with seven parameters to describe physical characteristics of the
aquifers. It is concluded that about 34% of the area was considered to be of
moderate vulnerability, but the share increased to 60% after modifying the
index. While high vulnerability was at 25% of the total area, it decreased to
6.3% with the modified index; therefore, urgent pollution prevention measures
should be taken for every kind of relevant activity within the whole basin.