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Assessing Groundwater Vulnerability Using DRASTIC Method and Groundwater Quality in Changwon City  

Hamm Se-Yeong (Dept. of Geology, Pusan National University)
Cheong Jae-Yeol (Dept. of Geology, Pusan National University)
Kim Moo-Jin (Dept. of Geology, Pusan National University)
Kim In-Soo (Dept. of Geology, Pusan National University)
Hwang Han-Seok (Samjung Consultant)
Publication Information
Economic and Environmental Geology / v.37, no.6, 2004 , pp. 631-645 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study assesses groundwater vulnerability to contaminants in industrial and residential/commercial areas of the city of Changwon, using DRASTIC technique and groundwater data. The DRASTIC technique was originally applied to situations in which the contamination sources are at the ground surface, and the contaminants flow into the groundwater with infiltration of rainfall. Mostly the industrial area has higher DRASTIC indices than the residential/commercial area. However, a part of the residential/commercial area having much groundwater production and great drawdown is more contaminated in groundwater than other industrial and the residential/commercial areas even if it has lowest DRASTIC indices in the study area. It indicates that groundwater contamination in urban areas can be closely related to excessive pumping resulting in a lowering of the water level. The correlation coefficient between minimum DRASTIC indices and the degree of poor water quality for 10 districts is as low as 0.40. On the other hand, the correlation coefficients between minimum DRASTIC indices and the groundwater discharge rate, and between minimum DRASTIC indices and well distribution density per unit area are 0.70 and 0.87, respectively. Thus, to evaluate the potential of groundwater contamination in urban areas, it is necessary to consider other human-made factors such as groundwater withdrawal rate and well distribution density per unit area as well as the existing seven DRASTIC factors.
Keywords
DRASTIC; Changwon City; groundwater vulnerability; contamination sources; groundwater production rate;
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