A groundwater vulnerability assessment method for organic pollution: a validation case in the Hun River basin, Northeastern China

DRASTIC is one of the most widely used evaluation models for groundwater vulnerability assessments, and geographic information system technology facilitates its broad application. In this study, DRAOTIC was used to assess groundwater organic pollution vulnerability in the Hun River alluvial plain, Northeastern China. Results demonstrate that DRAOTIC can accurately reflect groundwater organic pollution characteristics in the Hun River alluvial fan, and principal component analysis may be used for objective weight determination to avoid limitations of the subjective method. Comparative analysis between monitoring and assessment results of regional groundwater organic pollution shows that their spatial distributions matched. An area of very high vulnerability was not observed in the study area. However, the area of moderate vulnerability accounted for more than 70 % of the total area, which means that there remains relatively high groundwater organic pollution risk, and groundwater resource management measures should be taken based on these findings. Although the last ranked in the parameter sensitivity analysis, the organic matter plays an important role in groundwater organic pollution as it was demonstrated when comparing the performances of DRAOTIC versus DRASTIC method. A comparison of DRASTIC and DRAOTIC model results demonstrates that the DRAOTIC model has greater accuracy in this application.