Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Surface Pollution Using GIS in the State of Kuwait Part I: Groundwater Intrinsic Vulnerability Mapping PDF

Keywords

Groundwater, Vulnerability to Pollution, Surface Activities, Assessment, DRASTIC Methodology, State of Kuwait .

Abstract

Groundwater represents the only natural source of relatively freshwater available to the State of Kuwait. However, recent studies have indicated groundwater pollution by agricultural, petroleum, and dumping activities, which could lead to the loss of this resource in the future if not properly protected. Hence, there is a need for planning documents representing the vulnerability of groundwater resources to pollution by surface activities, to be used in land use planning, or to take required precautionary measures for the existing activities. In the first part of this study, the vulnerability of groundwater to surface pollution in Kuwait is assessed using the DRASTIC methodology by employing Geographic Information System in the development of a spatial database that included hydrogeologic, topographic, water level, geologic, and soil data. The GIS database is used to classify the field values of the parameters of the DRASTIC methodology, which included Depth to water table, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone, and Hydraulic conductivity, and were converted into their respective ratings. The Recharge parameter was excluded due to its negligible value over Kuwait. These ratings are then multiplied by the parameters relative weights to produce the final groundwater vulnerability index map. Analysis of the map indicated that groundwater classified as vulnerable to highly vulnerable occupy about 1100 km2 from the total area of Kuwait and is located mainly in the eastern parts of the country along the coast, where the depth to groundwater is as low as 0 to 1.5 m. However, the majority of groundwater areas in Kuwait have low potential to surface pollution, essentially due to the large depth to groundwater, which is more than 75 m towards the west.