Abstract
In recent years vulnerability maps have been used as a tool to highlight the areas with the greatest potential for groundwater pollution based on the hydrogeological conditions and their respective human impacts. Several regions of Greece depend completely or partially on drinking water from karst aquifers; thus, the production of vulnerability maps for such karstic areas is considered essential. In the present study, an assessment of aquifer intrinsic vulnerability has been conducted applying the COP method in the Ziria karst system. The latter is located at the Northeast part of Peloponnese in South Greece and is used as a public resource for drinking water. This method, which has been developed for carbonate (karst) aquifers, uses the properties of the overlying layers above the water table (O factor), the concentration of flow (C factor) and the precipitation regime (P factor) over the aquifer. The COP method considers karstic landforms as factors that decrease the natural protection provided by the overlying layers of a karst aquifer. With the use of GIS tools, vulnerability maps were produced highlighting the different degrees of intrinsic vulnerability in the karst system of Ziria.
Highlights
Groundwater from karst aquifers is one of the most important resources of drinking water supply for populations worldwide
Based on the EPIK method, which was the first method applied for vulnerability mapping in karst systems [1], several methods have been developed, such as PI [4], KARSTIC [5], COP [6,7], COP + K [8], the Slovene approach [9] and PaPRIKA [10]
In the Ziria karstic groundwater system located at North Peloponnese, the COP method was applied to assess its intrinsic vulnerability
Summary
Groundwater from karst aquifers is one of the most important resources of drinking water supply for populations worldwide. The soil is very thin or absent [3] For this reason, the protection of karst groundwater systems is of high priority in Europe. In the Ziria karstic groundwater system located at North Peloponnese, the COP method was applied to assess its intrinsic vulnerability. This method is based on three factors assessing the vulnerability according to the European Approach: Concentration of flow (C), Overlying layers (O). A front of springs drains the Ziria karst system at the south part of the study area, and the respective water is used to supply the city of Corinth at North Peloponnese with drinking water. In work that is ongoing, the protection zoning at the test site using other methods is still in progress
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