The objective of this study is to estimate the groundwater intrinsic vulnerability in Atalanti porous aquifer in Central Greece in order to improve the decision making processes to prevent contamination through watershed management and land use planning. Several land areas are more susceptible to groundwater contamination than others due to geological and hydrogeological parameters controlling the pollution. Vulnerability assessment is one of the major techniques used to assist the development of protection strategies. It allows delimitation of areas with different degree of natural protection of groundwater against pollution. DRASTIC model through hydrogeological, hydraulic and soil parameters shows areas vulnerable to pollution with the help of GIS. These rated as well as weighted parameters are combined to create the final map, while results’ optimization with groundwater quality data (nitrate concentration as a modifying parameter) is implemented in order to minimize the method’s uncertainty by examining the sensitivity analysis. By overlying various spatially referenced data layers, the final map indicates the groundwater vulnerability to pollution across Atalanti alluvial basin. The obtained vulnerability map gives locations which must have high priority in terms of protection and pollution prevention. Finally, the proposed method is suggested for agricultural areas with similar geological, hydrogeological and land use settings.

Key words: Porous aquifer, groundwater contamination, nitrate concentration, method’s uncertainty, pollution prevention, DRASTIC parameterization optimization.
 

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