Toward operational methods for the assessment of intrinsic groundwater vulnerability: A review

Assessing the vulnerability of groundwater to adverse effects of human impacts is one of the most important problems in applied hydrogeology. At the same time, many of the widespread vulnerability assessment methods do not provide physically meaningful and operational indicators of vulnerability. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical reviews in environmental science and technology 2016-05, Vol.46 (9), p.827-884
Main Authors: Wachniew, Przemysław, Zurek, Anna J., Stumpp, Christine, Gemitzi, Alexandra, Gargini, Alessandro, Filippini, Maria, Rozanski, Kazimierz, Meeks, Jessica, Kværner, Jens, Witczak, Stanislaw
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assessments
Groundwater
Human influences
Hydrogeology
Indicators
intrinsic vulnerability
residence time
Resources management
Time
Water flow
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Summary:Assessing the vulnerability of groundwater to adverse effects of human impacts is one of the most important problems in applied hydrogeology. At the same time, many of the widespread vulnerability assessment methods do not provide physically meaningful and operational indicators of vulnerability. Therefore, this review summarizes (i) different methods used for intrinsic vulnerability assessment and (ii) methods for different groundwater systems. It particularly focuses on (iii) timescale methods of water flow as an appropriate tool and (iv) provides a discussion on the challenges in applying these methods. The use of such physically meaningful indices based on timescales is indispensable for groundwater resources management.
ISSN:1064-3389
1547-6537
DOI:10.1080/10643389.2016.1160816