Integration of GIS, Electromagnetic and Electrical Methods in the Delimitation of Groundwater Polluted by Effluent Discharge (Salamanca, Spain): A Case Study

Rubén Vidal Montes, Antonio Miguel Martínez-Graña, José Ramón Martínez Catalán, Puy Ayarza Arribas, Francisco Javier Sánchez San Román and Caridad Zazo
Additional contact information
Rubén Vidal Montes: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Antonio Miguel Martínez-Graña: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
José Ramón Martínez Catalán: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Puy Ayarza Arribas: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Francisco Javier Sánchez San Román: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Caridad Zazo: CSIC-National Museum of Natural Sciences, Geology Section, 28006 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: The present work envisages the possible geometry of a contaminated plume of groundwater near hospital facilities by combining GIS (Geographic Information System) and geophysical methods. The rock underlying the soil and thin sedimentary cover of the study area is moderately fractured quartzite, which makes aquifers vulnerable to pollution. The GIS methodology is used to calculate the area that would be affected by the effluent source of residual water, based on algorithms that consider ground surface mapping (slopes, orientations, accumulated costs and cost per distance). Geophysical methods (electromagnetic induction and electric resistivity tomography) use changes in the electrical conductivity or resistivity of the subsurface to determine the geometry of the discharge and the degree of contamination. The model presented would allow a preliminary investigation regarding potential corrective measures.

Keywords: pollution; groundwater; GIS; geophysics; effluent discharge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/11/1369/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/11/1369/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:11:p:1369-:d:118350

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().