Abstract
The phreatic aquifer of Aousja-Ghar El Melh (governorate of Bizerta, northeast of Tunisia), has a great economic weight as it is tightly linked to irrigation and domestic consumption. The aquifer area is found mostly in agricultural zones where more and more chemical fertilizers are being used. Such chemical fertilizers, alongside industrial zones discharges appearing for the last 25 years, put at risk ground waters quality. The DRASTIC method has been applied to study the extent to which the aquifer has been affected by generic pollutants. This method hinges on GIS techniques. The result suggests a map with evidence for three degrees of vulnerability: low, moderate, and high. Evidence shows the predominance of moderate vulnerability in most of Aousja-Ghar El Melh aquifer, which occupies an area of 45%. Low and high groundwater vulnerability occupy 28% and 27% of the total surface of the studied area, respectively.
Highlights
The environmental concerns are often groundwater-related and concentrate generally on the effect of pollution and the quality degradation with regard to the human uses, the reserve domesticates in particular
The result is the pollution of shallow aquifers in and around Tunisian cities in general, and in Aousja-Ghar El Melh in particular
This study mainly aims at estimating groundwater vulnerability in a shallow aquifer, with emphasis on pollution using the coupling between the GIS and the DRASTIC model in association with the hydro-geologic layers such as Net Recharge, Depth to water, Soil media, Aquifer media, Topography, Impact of the vadose zone, and Hydraulic Conductivity
Summary
The environmental concerns are often groundwater-related and concentrate generally on the effect of pollution and the quality degradation with regard to the human uses, the reserve domesticates in particular. Because of high growth population and industrialization, the important quantities of domestic and industrial effluents are the most important sources of groundwater pollution. Groundwater quality is more important than quantity, given its being the sole drinking water source in most Tunisian urban areas. The quality of the drinking water in Tunisian cities has deteriorated because of population growth, lack of strategic growth plan, mixture of land use, absence of the appropriate sewers and poor control of wastewater disposal, and leftover water from human and industrial activities. The groundwater, be it in aquifer or produced by wells, has the same contamination vulnerability by pollutants resulting from human activities
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