ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessing Pollution Risk in Ardabil Aquifer
Groundwater of Iran with Arsenic and Nitrate
Using the SINTACS Model
| 1 | Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran |
| 2 | Department of Water Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran |
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Seyed Abbas Hosseini
Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Iran
Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Iran
Submission date: 2019-06-17
Final revision date: 2019-08-04
Acceptance date: 2019-10-08
Online publication date: 2020-03-03
Publication date: 2020-04-21
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(4):2609–2616
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Groundwater vulnerability assessment is a general method for studying groundwater pollution.
This study aimed to assess the pollution risk of groundwater with nitrate and arsenic. Risk is comprised
of two parts: calculation of occurrence probability map and composition of occurrence probability map
with groundwater vulnerability model. To draw up a groundwater vulnerability map, the SINTACS
model was used. The correlation of the model with nitrate and arsenic concentrations was investigated.
The correlation coefficients of the SINTACS model with nitrate and arsenic were r = 0.70 and r = 0.85,
respectively. According to sensitivity analysis, we concluded that the SINTACS model had the least
sensitivity to hydraulic conductivity. To prepare the occurrence probability map, nitrate and arsenic
concentrations were combined separately with the groundwater recharge potential model. Finally, the
risk map was prepared by combining the occurrence probability map and groundwater vulnerability
with the SINTACS model. The results revealed that 14.72% of the study area had a high risk of nitrate
and 35.33% had a high risk of arsenic. The areas with high pollution risk are those which are considered
agricultural lands based on the land use map.
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