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Decision support model for assessing aquifer pollution hazard and prioritizing groundwater resources management in the wet Pampa plain, Argentina

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Abstract

This paper gives an account of the implementation of a decision support system for assessing aquifer pollution hazard and prioritizing subwatersheds for groundwater resources management in the southeastern Pampa plain of Argentina. The use of this system is demonstrated with an example from Dulce Stream Basin (1,000 km2 encompassing 27 subwatersheds), which has high level of agricultural activities and extensive available data regarding aquifer geology. In the logic model, aquifer pollution hazard is assessed as a function of two primary topics: groundwater and soil conditions. This logic model shows the state of each evaluated landscape with respect to aquifer pollution hazard based mainly on the parameters of the DRASTIC and GOD models. The decision model allows prioritizing subwatersheds for groundwater resources management according to three main criteria including farming activities, agrochemical application, and irrigation use. Stakeholder participation, through interviews, in combination with expert judgment was used to select and weight each criterion. The resulting subwatershed priority map, by combining the logic and decision models, allowed identifying five subwatersheds in the upper and middle basin as the main aquifer protection areas. The results reasonably fit the natural conditions of the basin, identifying those subwatersheds with shallow water depth, loam–loam silt texture soil media and pasture land cover in the middle basin, and others with intensive agricultural activity, coinciding with the natural recharge area to the aquifer system. Major difficulties and some recommendations of applying this methodology in real-world situations are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out with funding from the National Agency for Science and Technology (PICT 20-25532 project) and the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina (EXA 326/08). Two of the authors (MLL and AR) are indebted to the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) for fellowship support. The authors would like to thank Keith M. Reynolds (USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station) for the Criterium DecisionPlus, NetWeaver and EMDS version support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras National, Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    M. Lourdes Lima & Asunción Romanelli

  2. Instituto de Geología de Costas y del Cuaternario, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, 3350 Funes St., Level 1, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    M. Lourdes Lima, Asunción Romanelli & Héctor E. Massone

  3. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad FASTA, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    M. Lourdes Lima & Héctor E. Massone

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  1. M. Lourdes Lima
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  2. Asunción Romanelli
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  3. Héctor E. Massone
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Correspondence to M. Lourdes Lima.

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Lima, M.L., Romanelli, A. & Massone, H.E. Decision support model for assessing aquifer pollution hazard and prioritizing groundwater resources management in the wet Pampa plain, Argentina. Environ Monit Assess 185, 5125–5139 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2930-4

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