A Land Surface Zoning Approach Based on Three-Component Risk Criteria for Groundwater Quality Protection

Abstract

Protecting the quality of groundwater is a necessity that requires significant restrictions on land use. Because such restrictions are of complex socio-economic consequences, they should be carefully adjusted to the spatially varied protection needs. This paper describes the development of a series of maps designed to facilitate groundwater protection decisions according to land surface zoning. The zoning was based on attributes descriptive of the basic elements of risk (hazard, exposure and consequences) to groundwater quality in Kuwait to provide basis for adjusting the protective regulations to the needs. Standardized maps of the major categories of potentially hazardous activities were prepared using ArcGIS. A country scale map combining and ranking all the hazardous activities was prepared using the USEPA's hazard ranking system (HRS). The intrinsic vulnerability of the groundwater was mapped using the DRASTIC model. The relative value of the groundwater was mapped according to the three-component criteria of current and future dependence on groundwater, as well as interaction with environmental resources, which were adapted from USEPA criteria for prioritizing the protection/remediation funds. Agricultural activities and oil-related industries were ranked the most hazardous activities in Kuwait. The patterns of the intrinsic vulnerability seemed to be dictated by the depth to the groundwater and the material of the unsaturated zone. Decision making tools were produced by combining the above maps as follows: (1) vulnerability and hazard maps to produce the risk map, (2) risk and value maps to produce the value weighted risk map, and (3) vulnerability and value maps to produce release consequences map. The produced maps should serve the purposes of identifying all potential monitoring targets, prioritizing of funds allocation for monitoring or other corrective actions, and adjusting the land use restrictions to the needs as well as allocating future potentially hazardous land use, respectively. Benefits of including the groundwater value in the criteria for protecting the resource were illustrated by .kw1 1678 A. A. Fadlelmawla et al. comparing the decisions that would be logically made based on schemes with and without groundwater value as part of the criteria.

Optimizing Site Selection of New Cities in the Desert Using Environmental Geomorphology and GIS: A Case Study of Kuwait

“…Additionally, there are eight desalinization plants in the coastal region, and so groundwater use remains very, very low. Therefore, in consultation with a number of local and regional specialists and references [cf., 42,43], it was determined groundwater does not play a significant enough role to warrant inclusion in our model for Kuwait, given that the lowest groundwater level in Kuwait is five meters -with the exception of coastal sabkha areas, which are taken into account in the modeling Areas not suitable for agriculture were given priority as suitable places for building cities, and vice versa, Kuwait was divided into 4 zones according to the soil types (see fig 4-c). The division of the country into sectors that are suitable or not suitable for building cities was based on a soil survey prepared by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research [45,46].…”

Institutional Issues around Agricultural Land-Use Control for Groundwater Conservation—A Long-Term Perspective

“…Aquifer pollution vulnerability represents the degree of natural protection provided by the contaminant attenuation capacity of soil and the unsaturated zone above an aquifer. Pollution vulnerability mapping is a technique dating back to the late 1980s and has extensive published literature internationally [16][17][18]. The effectiveness of the physicochemical processes involved (filtration, adsorption, biodegradation and hydrolysis) varies with soil and rock structure, clay and organic matter content, and pH.…”

A New Policy of Water Resources and Environmental Regulation in China

“…First, the disordered spatial development and irrational processes in urbanization and industrialization exacerbate the deterioration of water bodies [10], and has previously been overlooked. Zoning aids the limitations in TLOP, as it divides an area into sub-areas based on similar characteristics for the implementation of appropriate environmental measures [11][12][13]. China has previously explored zoning for protected areas [13], water functions, water environmental functions, water ecological functions [14], and watershed functions [15].…”