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Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment and Feasibility Mapping Under Reclaimed Water Irrigation by a Modified DRASTIC Model

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Abstract

Increasing water shortages promote reclaimed water irrigation (RWI), which potentially causes additional contaminants in groundwater. The DRASTIC model has become an important tool to assess specific groundwater vulnerability. In this study, five parameters of the model were kept to calculated intrinsic vulnerability index (IVI). Aquifer media rating is calculated using the weighted average of ratings for all mediums instead of using the major medium rating, and the rating of the impact of vadose zone is adjusted for the clayey soils on the basis of their thickness. Subsequently, a single parameter sensitivity analysis is used to compute the effective weights of those five parameters. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient between IVI and Nemerow’s synthetical pollution Index (NI) of groundwater quality is significantly improved from 0.185 to 0.775 after four steps of revision. The RWI factor, Rrr, is introduced to assess specific vulnerability index (SVI) under RWI. The SVI decreases from east to west with the increases in depth to water, clayey soil thickness, and other factors. To manage contamination risk, the study area is divided into preferential zones, feasible zones and unfeasible zones for RWI planning and operation with suggested engineering measures.

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Acknowledgments

The study was funded by the national natural science funds 51339007 and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission under grant number 2008B44.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100048, China

    Wenyong Wu

  2. Beijing Hydraulic Research Institute, Beijing, 100048, China

    Wenyong Wu, Shiyang Yin & Honglu Liu

  3. China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Honghan Chen

  4. No. 21, Che Gongzhuang West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China, 100048

    Wenyong Wu

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  1. Wenyong Wu
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  2. Shiyang Yin
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Correspondence to Wenyong Wu.

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Wu, W., Yin, S., Liu, H. et al. Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment and Feasibility Mapping Under Reclaimed Water Irrigation by a Modified DRASTIC Model. Water Resour Manage 28, 1219–1234 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0536-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0536-z

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