A dynamic map application for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability to pollution

Groundwater pollution is a major environmental concern at global scale. It usually restricts the use of water resources for domestic, agricultural or industrial purposes, with significant impact on human well-being. Aquifer remediation may be very difficult or even impossible due to technical and/or economic constraints. To help prevent groundwater pollution, several cartographic methods have already been developed. Geographical information systems (GIS) provide useful tools for understanding the spatial distribution of groundwater vulnerability to pollution. This paper presents a new tool to produce groundwater vulnerability to pollution maps under a GIS open source environment. This application was developed within the QGIS software. The tool determines the spatial distribution of the DRASTIC index and incorporates all the procedures required under a single plugin. One of the main advantages of this application is the easiness to use and the possibility of viewing different results modifying indexes, weight values and table descriptions or importing the input data attribute file description. The user can also generate the maps according to his perception regarding each aquifer system. This application is free and presents a valuable contribution to assess and map groundwater vulnerability to pollution through a GIS open source.