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Groundwater Quality and Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment

Groundwater Quality and Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment environments Editorial Voudouris Konstantinos * and Kazakis Nerantzis Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; kazakis@geo.auth.gr * Correspondence: kvoudour@geo.auth.gr Groundwater is a valuable and finite resource covering only 30% of the freshwater (3% of the total volume of water) on Earth. Both groundwater quantity and quality are becoming dominant issues in many countries. Groundwater, as a source of public water supply, presents significant advantages compared with surface water due to its protection from surface pollutants. However, the growth of the world population, up to 9 billion by 2050, is leading to increased demands of groundwater, growing urbanization and high living standards, intensive agricultural activities and industrial demands. Additionally, cli- mate change/variability triggers extreme hydrological events such as droughts and floods which influence groundwater recharge processes. Obviously, groundwater resources are under intense anthropogenic pressures and constant threat of pollution. Human activities, such as agriculture, urbanization and industry, have caused irreversible degradation of groundwater quality; therefore, prevention is the most appropriate strategy in the fight against groundwater pollution. Vulnerability and pollution risk maps of groundwater constitute important tools for groundwater management and protection. The concept of the groundwater vulnerability is based on the assumption that the physical environment may provide some degree of protection to groundwater against human activities. Groundwater vulnerability is divided into specific vulnerability and intrinsic vulnerability. Intrinsic vulnerability of an aquifer can be defined as the ease with which a contaminant introduced Citation: Konstantinos, V.; Nerantzis, onto the ground surface can reach and diffuse in groundwater. Specific vulnerability is K. Groundwater Quality and used to define the vulnerability of groundwater to particular contaminants, or a group of Groundwater Vulnerability contaminants, by taking into account the contaminants’ physicochemical properties and Assessment. Environments 2021, 8, their relationships. Groundwater pollution risk can be defined as the process of estimating 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/ the possibility that a particular event may occur under a given set of circumstances, and environments8100100 the assessment is achieved by overlaying hazard and vulnerability. Regional assessment of groundwater vulnerability is a useful tool for groundwater resource management and Received: 17 September 2021 protection. The results provide important information, and the vulnerability maps could Accepted: 22 September 2021 be used by local authorities and decision makers. These maps are designed to indicate the Published: 26 September 2021 areas of greatest potential for groundwater contamination on the basis of hydrogeological conditions and human impacts. Some countries use vulnerability maps as a basis for Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral protection zoning. This special issue entitled “Groundwater Quality and Groundwater with regard to jurisdictional claims in Vulnerability Assessment” attempts to cover the main fields of groundwater quality and published maps and institutional affil- groundwater vulnerability against external pollution, presenting case studies in various iations. countries concerning the physicochemical characteristics of groundwaters and methods for groundwater vulnerability assessment. Particularly, this issue includes 10 articles, providing an integrated analysis of factors that influence groundwater quality, the key parameters of aquifer conceptualization in Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. order to assess groundwater vulnerability. In the article of Bannenberg et al. [1] an inte- Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. grated approach has been presented in order to conceptualize the hydrogeological and This article is an open access article hydrochemical regime of the basin. Mapping of groundwater quality is also a critical issue distributed under the terms and and has been presented by Adnan et al. [2]. Within the special issue a detailed analysis of conditions of the Creative Commons critical pollution sources has been presented [3–5]. Groundwater quality is also influenced Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// by water table variations. The related Hydro-Meteorological Variables that influence the creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ water table by using intelligent techniques of Fuzzy Logic have also been analyzed in the 4.0/). Environments 2021, 8, 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments8100100 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/environments Environments 2021, 8, 100 2 of 2 presented articles [6]. Groundwater vulnerability has been assessed in a coastal aquifer using the GALDIT method [7], as well as in karst aquifers by using different methods such as EPIK and PaPRIKa [8,9]. The PaPRIKa method has been applied by using a novel tool in the QGIS environment [9]. Finally, within this special issue a novel tool named GVTool have been presented [10]. The tool has been developed in QGIS software, providing the capability to assess groundwater vulnerability maps considering four different methods: DRASTIC, GOD, SINTACS, and Susceptibility Index (SI). We would like to express our thanks to the authors who contributed to this special issue, to the reviewers for their valuable assistance as well as to the organizers and the staff of MDPI, for their efforts to complete and publish this issue. We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate young researchers to focus their research on groundwater issues. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. References 1. Bannenberg, M.; Ntona, M.M.; Busico, G.; Kalaitzidou, K.; Mitrakas, M.; Vargemezis, G.; Fikos, I.; Kazakis, N.; Voudouris, K. Hydrogeological and Hydrochemical Regime Evaluation in Flamouria Basin in Edessa (Northern Greece). Environments 2020, 7, 105. [CrossRef] 2. Adnan, S.; Iqbal, J.; Maltamo, M.; Bacha, M.S.; Shahab, A.; Valbuena, R. A Simple Approach of Groundwater Quality Analysis, Classification, and Mapping in Peshawar, Pakistan. Environments 2019, 6, 123. [CrossRef] 3. Zamzow, K.; Chambers, D.M. Potential Impacts to Wetlands and Water Bodies Due to Mineral Exploration, Pebble Copper-Gold Prospect, Southwest Alaska. Environments 2019, 6, 84. [CrossRef] 4. Chambers, D.M.; Zamzow, K. Documentation of Acidic Mining Exploration Drill Cuttings at the Pebble Copper–Gold Mineral Prospect, Southwest Alaska. Environments 2019, 6, 78. [CrossRef] 5. Vigliotti, M.; Busico, G.; Ruberti, D. Assessment of the Vulnerability to Agricultural Nitrate in Two Highly Diversified Environ- mental Settings. Environments 2020, 7, 80. [CrossRef] 6. Papadopoulos, C.; Spiliotis, M.; Gkiougkis, I.; Pliakas, F.; Papadopoulos, B. Relating Hydro-Meteorological Variables to Water Table in an Unconfined Aquifer via Fuzzy Linear Regression. Environments 2021, 8, 9. [CrossRef] 7. Mavriou, Z.; Kazakis, N.; Pliakas, F.-K. Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability in the North Aquifer Area of Rhodes Island Using the GALDIT Method and GIS. Environments 2019, 6, 56. [CrossRef] 8. Vogelbacher, A.; Kazakis, N.; Voudouris, K.; Bold, S. Groundwater Vulnerability and Risk Assessment in a Karst Aquifer of Greece Using EPIK Method. Environments 2019, 6, 116. [CrossRef] 9. Ollivier, C.; Chalikakis, K.; Mazzilli, N.; Kazakis, N.; Lecomte, Y.; Danquigny, C.; Emblanch, C. Challenges and Limitations of Karst Aquifer Vulnerability Mapping Based on the PaPRIKa Method—Application to a Large European Karst Aquifer (Fontaine de Vaucluse, France). Environments 2019, 6, 39. [CrossRef] 10. Duarte, L.; Espinha Marques, J.; Teodoro, A.C. An Open Source GIS-Based Application for the Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Pollution. Environments 2019, 6, 86. [CrossRef] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environments Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Groundwater Quality and Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment

Voudouris, Konstantinos; Kazakis, Nerantzis
Environments , Volume 8 (10) – Sep 26, 2021
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
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© 1996-2021 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated Disclaimer The statements, opinions and data contained in the journals are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy
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2076-3298
DOI
10.3390/environments8100100
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Abstract

environments Editorial Voudouris Konstantinos * and Kazakis Nerantzis Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; kazakis@geo.auth.gr * Correspondence: kvoudour@geo.auth.gr Groundwater is a valuable and finite resource covering only 30% of the freshwater (3% of the total volume of water) on Earth. Both groundwater quantity and quality are becoming dominant issues in many countries. Groundwater, as a source of public water supply, presents significant advantages compared with surface water due to its protection from surface pollutants. However, the growth of the world population, up to 9 billion by 2050, is leading to increased demands of groundwater, growing urbanization and high living standards, intensive agricultural activities and industrial demands. Additionally, cli- mate change/variability triggers extreme hydrological events such as droughts and floods which influence groundwater recharge processes. Obviously, groundwater resources are under intense anthropogenic pressures and constant threat of pollution. Human activities, such as agriculture, urbanization and industry, have caused irreversible degradation of groundwater quality; therefore, prevention is the most appropriate strategy in the fight against groundwater pollution. Vulnerability and pollution risk maps of groundwater constitute important tools for groundwater management and protection. The concept of the groundwater vulnerability is based on the assumption that the physical environment may provide some degree of protection to groundwater against human activities. Groundwater vulnerability is divided into specific vulnerability and intrinsic vulnerability. Intrinsic vulnerability of an aquifer can be defined as the ease with which a contaminant introduced Citation: Konstantinos, V.; Nerantzis, onto the ground surface can reach and diffuse in groundwater. Specific vulnerability is K. Groundwater Quality and used to define the vulnerability of groundwater to particular contaminants, or a group of Groundwater Vulnerability contaminants, by taking into account the contaminants’ physicochemical properties and Assessment. Environments 2021, 8, their relationships. Groundwater pollution risk can be defined as the process of estimating 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/ the possibility that a particular event may occur under a given set of circumstances, and environments8100100 the assessment is achieved by overlaying hazard and vulnerability. Regional assessment of groundwater vulnerability is a useful tool for groundwater resource management and Received: 17 September 2021 protection. The results provide important information, and the vulnerability maps could Accepted: 22 September 2021 be used by local authorities and decision makers. These maps are designed to indicate the Published: 26 September 2021 areas of greatest potential for groundwater contamination on the basis of hydrogeological conditions and human impacts. Some countries use vulnerability maps as a basis for Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral protection zoning. This special issue entitled “Groundwater Quality and Groundwater with regard to jurisdictional claims in Vulnerability Assessment” attempts to cover the main fields of groundwater quality and published maps and institutional affil- groundwater vulnerability against external pollution, presenting case studies in various iations. countries concerning the physicochemical characteristics of groundwaters and methods for groundwater vulnerability assessment. Particularly, this issue includes 10 articles, providing an integrated analysis of factors that influence groundwater quality, the key parameters of aquifer conceptualization in Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. order to assess groundwater vulnerability. In the article of Bannenberg et al. [1] an inte- Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. grated approach has been presented in order to conceptualize the hydrogeological and This article is an open access article hydrochemical regime of the basin. Mapping of groundwater quality is also a critical issue distributed under the terms and and has been presented by Adnan et al. [2]. Within the special issue a detailed analysis of conditions of the Creative Commons critical pollution sources has been presented [3–5]. Groundwater quality is also influenced Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// by water table variations. The related Hydro-Meteorological Variables that influence the creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ water table by using intelligent techniques of Fuzzy Logic have also been analyzed in the 4.0/). Environments 2021, 8, 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments8100100 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/environments Environments 2021, 8, 100 2 of 2 presented articles [6]. Groundwater vulnerability has been assessed in a coastal aquifer using the GALDIT method [7], as well as in karst aquifers by using different methods such as EPIK and PaPRIKa [8,9]. The PaPRIKa method has been applied by using a novel tool in the QGIS environment [9]. Finally, within this special issue a novel tool named GVTool have been presented [10]. The tool has been developed in QGIS software, providing the capability to assess groundwater vulnerability maps considering four different methods: DRASTIC, GOD, SINTACS, and Susceptibility Index (SI). We would like to express our thanks to the authors who contributed to this special issue, to the reviewers for their valuable assistance as well as to the organizers and the staff of MDPI, for their efforts to complete and publish this issue. We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate young researchers to focus their research on groundwater issues. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. References 1. Bannenberg, M.; Ntona, M.M.; Busico, G.; Kalaitzidou, K.; Mitrakas, M.; Vargemezis, G.; Fikos, I.; Kazakis, N.; Voudouris, K. Hydrogeological and Hydrochemical Regime Evaluation in Flamouria Basin in Edessa (Northern Greece). Environments 2020, 7, 105. [CrossRef] 2. Adnan, S.; Iqbal, J.; Maltamo, M.; Bacha, M.S.; Shahab, A.; Valbuena, R. A Simple Approach of Groundwater Quality Analysis, Classification, and Mapping in Peshawar, Pakistan. Environments 2019, 6, 123. [CrossRef] 3. Zamzow, K.; Chambers, D.M. Potential Impacts to Wetlands and Water Bodies Due to Mineral Exploration, Pebble Copper-Gold Prospect, Southwest Alaska. Environments 2019, 6, 84. [CrossRef] 4. Chambers, D.M.; Zamzow, K. Documentation of Acidic Mining Exploration Drill Cuttings at the Pebble Copper–Gold Mineral Prospect, Southwest Alaska. Environments 2019, 6, 78. [CrossRef] 5. Vigliotti, M.; Busico, G.; Ruberti, D. Assessment of the Vulnerability to Agricultural Nitrate in Two Highly Diversified Environ- mental Settings. Environments 2020, 7, 80. [CrossRef] 6. Papadopoulos, C.; Spiliotis, M.; Gkiougkis, I.; Pliakas, F.; Papadopoulos, B. Relating Hydro-Meteorological Variables to Water Table in an Unconfined Aquifer via Fuzzy Linear Regression. Environments 2021, 8, 9. [CrossRef] 7. Mavriou, Z.; Kazakis, N.; Pliakas, F.-K. Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability in the North Aquifer Area of Rhodes Island Using the GALDIT Method and GIS. Environments 2019, 6, 56. [CrossRef] 8. Vogelbacher, A.; Kazakis, N.; Voudouris, K.; Bold, S. Groundwater Vulnerability and Risk Assessment in a Karst Aquifer of Greece Using EPIK Method. Environments 2019, 6, 116. [CrossRef] 9. Ollivier, C.; Chalikakis, K.; Mazzilli, N.; Kazakis, N.; Lecomte, Y.; Danquigny, C.; Emblanch, C. Challenges and Limitations of Karst Aquifer Vulnerability Mapping Based on the PaPRIKa Method—Application to a Large European Karst Aquifer (Fontaine de Vaucluse, France). Environments 2019, 6, 39. [CrossRef] 10. Duarte, L.; Espinha Marques, J.; Teodoro, A.C. An Open Source GIS-Based Application for the Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Pollution. Environments 2019, 6, 86. [CrossRef]

Journal

Environments – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Published: Sep 26, 2021

Keywords: n/a

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