Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Groundwater Vulnerability to Nitrate Contamination from Fertilizers Using Modified DRASTIC Frameworks

Torkashvand, Maryam ; Neshat, Aminreza ; Javadi, Saman ; Yousefi, Hossein and Berndtsson, Ronny LU orcid (2023) In Water (Switzerland) 15(17).
Abstract

Vulnerability maps of groundwater provide an efficient means of identifying environmental trends and prioritizing regions for prevention plans. The GIS-based DRASTIC method, however, does not consider the impact of contamination, so there is a need to modify it according to the specifics of the region and its contamination load. The aim of this study is to investigate a suitable DRASTIC modification for vulnerability assessment by changes in its rating and weighting systems. The goal is to explore and compare the impact of both objective and subjective weighting methods in the vulnerability assessment of a smaller aquifer situated beneath agricultural land. The frequency ratio (FR) method is used to adjust the DRASTIC index rates based... (More)

Vulnerability maps of groundwater provide an efficient means of identifying environmental trends and prioritizing regions for prevention plans. The GIS-based DRASTIC method, however, does not consider the impact of contamination, so there is a need to modify it according to the specifics of the region and its contamination load. The aim of this study is to investigate a suitable DRASTIC modification for vulnerability assessment by changes in its rating and weighting systems. The goal is to explore and compare the impact of both objective and subjective weighting methods in the vulnerability assessment of a smaller aquifer situated beneath agricultural land. The frequency ratio (FR) method is used to adjust the DRASTIC index rates based on nitrate contamination as the main contamination from fertilizers extensively used in the study area. The DRASTIC parameters’ weights are determined using two objective and subjective methods, including Shannon entropy and single-parameter sensitivity analysis (SPSA), respectively. In total, five frameworks, including FR-DRASTIC, DRASTIC-Entropy, DRASTIC-SPSA, FR-SPSA, and FR-Entropy are developed and evaluated. We validate these proposed vulnerability indices based on the nitrate concentrations in 14 samples. The results show that the vulnerability map obtained from the FR-Entropy framework is superior, showing a 0.85 correlation with nitrate concentrations. Notably, Shannon entropy as an objective weighting method outperformed the subjective SPSA approach.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
DRASTIC, entropy, frequency ratio, GIS, nitrate, single-parameter sensitivity analysis
in
Water (Switzerland)
volume
15
issue
17
article number
3134
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85170382586
ISSN
2073-4441
DOI
10.3390/w15173134
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: We acknowledge the support from the Strategic Research Area: The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW) at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
id
12ecf5e7-e259-4885-b915-6736d36cffc9
date added to LUP
2023-09-25 12:17:07
date last changed
2023-09-28 02:48:14
@article{12ecf5e7-e259-4885-b915-6736d36cffc9,
  abstract     = {{<p>Vulnerability maps of groundwater provide an efficient means of identifying environmental trends and prioritizing regions for prevention plans. The GIS-based DRASTIC method, however, does not consider the impact of contamination, so there is a need to modify it according to the specifics of the region and its contamination load. The aim of this study is to investigate a suitable DRASTIC modification for vulnerability assessment by changes in its rating and weighting systems. The goal is to explore and compare the impact of both objective and subjective weighting methods in the vulnerability assessment of a smaller aquifer situated beneath agricultural land. The frequency ratio (FR) method is used to adjust the DRASTIC index rates based on nitrate contamination as the main contamination from fertilizers extensively used in the study area. The DRASTIC parameters’ weights are determined using two objective and subjective methods, including Shannon entropy and single-parameter sensitivity analysis (SPSA), respectively. In total, five frameworks, including FR-DRASTIC, DRASTIC-Entropy, DRASTIC-SPSA, FR-SPSA, and FR-Entropy are developed and evaluated. We validate these proposed vulnerability indices based on the nitrate concentrations in 14 samples. The results show that the vulnerability map obtained from the FR-Entropy framework is superior, showing a 0.85 correlation with nitrate concentrations. Notably, Shannon entropy as an objective weighting method outperformed the subjective SPSA approach.</p>}},
  author       = {{Torkashvand, Maryam and Neshat, Aminreza and Javadi, Saman and Yousefi, Hossein and Berndtsson, Ronny}},
  issn         = {{2073-4441}},
  keywords     = {{DRASTIC; entropy; frequency ratio; GIS; nitrate; single-parameter sensitivity analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{17}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Water (Switzerland)}},
  title        = {{Groundwater Vulnerability to Nitrate Contamination from Fertilizers Using Modified DRASTIC Frameworks}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w15173134}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/w15173134}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}