Vulnerability assessment and potential contamination of unconfined aquifers

The decline in groundwater availability and quality has become a worldwide issue and has been the subject of several studies in recent decades. In this sense, the goal of this study is to assess the vulnerability of the Campeche Aquifer (Florianopolis, Brazil), identifying potential areas of possible contamination by the direct infiltration of runoff in drainage compensatory techniques. To achieve this goal, the following methodological steps were used: (1) data collection and preparation, (2) application of the DRASTIC model, (3) sensitivity analysis and (4) analysis of potential contamination by compensatory techniques. The results show that approximately 33% of the aquifer area presented moderate vulnerability to contamination. However, 29% of the remaining areas had high and extremely high vulnerability. Analysing the potential of contamination with drainage compensatory structures we verified that approximately 95% of them are located in areas of vulnerability classified as moderate and high. The other 5% were identified in areas with extremely high vulnerability. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the removal of topography, soil type and the impact of the vadose zone caused a large variation in vulnerability index. It is evident that there is a high potential of contamination of groundwater by direct infiltration of drainage compensatory structures.