TY - JOUR
T1 - Seasonal estimation of groundwater vulnerability
AU - Cervantes-Servin, Adrian I.
AU - Arora, Meenakshi
AU - Peterson, Tim J.
AU - Pettigrove, Vincent
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was sponsored by Melbourne Water, Melbourne School of Engineering at The University of Melbourne, The RMIT School of Science at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and The Mexican Council of Science and Technology “Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT)” under the international postgraduate scholarship program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Index-based methods estimate a fixed value of groundwater vulnerability (GWV); however, the effects of time variations on this estimation have not been comprehensively studied. It is imperative to estimate a time-variant vulnerability that accounts for climatic changes. In this study, we used a Pesticide DRASTICL method separating hydrogeological factors into dynamic and static groups followed by correspondence analysis. The dynamic group is composed of depth and recharge, and the static group is composed of aquifer media, soil media, topography slope, impact of vadose zone, aquifer conductivity and land use. The model results were 42.25–179.89, 33.93–159.81, 34.08–168.74, and 45.56–205.20 for spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. The results showed a moderate correlation between the model predictions and observed nitrogen concentrations with R2 = 0.568 and a high correlation for phosphorus concentrations with R2 = 0.706. Our results suggest that the time-variant GWV model provides a robust yet flexible method for investigating seasonal changes in GWV. This model is an improvement to the standard index-based methods, making them sensitive to climatic changes and portraying a true vulnerability estimation. Finally, the correction of the rating scale value fixes the problem of overestimation in standard models.
AB - Index-based methods estimate a fixed value of groundwater vulnerability (GWV); however, the effects of time variations on this estimation have not been comprehensively studied. It is imperative to estimate a time-variant vulnerability that accounts for climatic changes. In this study, we used a Pesticide DRASTICL method separating hydrogeological factors into dynamic and static groups followed by correspondence analysis. The dynamic group is composed of depth and recharge, and the static group is composed of aquifer media, soil media, topography slope, impact of vadose zone, aquifer conductivity and land use. The model results were 42.25–179.89, 33.93–159.81, 34.08–168.74, and 45.56–205.20 for spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. The results showed a moderate correlation between the model predictions and observed nitrogen concentrations with R2 = 0.568 and a high correlation for phosphorus concentrations with R2 = 0.706. Our results suggest that the time-variant GWV model provides a robust yet flexible method for investigating seasonal changes in GWV. This model is an improvement to the standard index-based methods, making them sensitive to climatic changes and portraying a true vulnerability estimation. Finally, the correction of the rating scale value fixes the problem of overestimation in standard models.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161972422&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-023-36194-1
DO - 10.1038/s41598-023-36194-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 37322035
AN - SCOPUS:85161972422
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 13
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 9720
ER -
