INSTITUTE OF EARTH SCIENCES

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DRASTICAI: a new index for groundwater vulnerability assessment:a portuguese case study

Publication . Albuquerque, M.T.D.; Roque, Natália; Rodrigues, Joana; Antunes, I.M.H.R.; Silva, C.

Groundwater vulnerability assessment has become a useful tool for groundwater pollution prevention. Groundwater vulnerability maps provide useful data for protecting groundwater resources. Identification of agricultural patterns is an important issue for optimized land management. The watershed of the Tagus River is the backbone of this study. Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark, in the central interior of Portugal, corresponds to a rural area. Intensive agricultural practices showed an increasing trend in the last decades. The method that is most used internationally to assess vulnerability is the DRASTIC index. In this study, the DRASTICAI index is introduced. A new attribute—anthropogenic influence—is added here. Five levels of increasing vulnerability, from low to high, can be recognized here. The municipality of Idanha-a-Nova is most affected by intensive agricultural activities, showing spatial patterns of DRASTICAI with a clear influence of anthropogenic activities, with high needs for groundwater abstraction. A robust assessment of groundwater quality has a key role. Climate change scenarios and water scarcity are important issues in the coming years, and particularly in the studied area. Therefore, optimized groundwater management is essential to consider in policy-making strategies.

2021Journal article

Open access

Water-rock interaction and potential ontamination risk in a U-enriched area

Publication . Antunes, I.M.H.R.; Teixeira, Rui; Albuquerque, M.T.D.; Valente, Teresa; Carvalho, Paula; Santos, António

The Picoto mining area is in the village of Vilar Seco (Viseu), central Portugal. Mineralization occurs mainly in quartz veins with meta-torbernite and uranophane and some U-bearing minerals, cutting a Variscan granite. Exploitation took place in two phases, between 1917 and 1953, and since the closure, the area has never been remediated. Water–rock interaction processes, including the mobility of potentially toxic elements through soil and water (surface and groundwater), were identified with the determination in situ of physicochemical parameters and selected anions and cations, by ICP-OES. The soils are contaminated with As (>44 mg/kg), Cu (>23 mg/kg), and U (>40 mg/kg) and cannot be used for agricultural or domestic purposes. The waters are generally weakly mineralized and have pH values ranging from acidic to neutral. However, some of them are contaminated with NO2 (up to 2.3 mg/L), Fe (up to 1849 mg/L), Mn (up to 777 mg/L), Cu (up to 5.4 g/L), As (up to 14.7 g/L), and U (up to 66.2 g/L) and cannot be used for human consumption or agricultural activities. The soil and water contamination are mainly related to the old mine activities and the subsequent human activities that have developed in the area.

2021Journal article

Open access