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

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, R<Subscript>rr</Subscript>, 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. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014