Vulnerability mapping of groundwater contamination based on 3D lithostratigraphical models of porous aquifers

The aim of this paper is to apply a methodology in order to reconstruct a lithostratigraphic 3D model of an aquifer so as to define some parameters involved in the evaluation of the aquifer vulnerability to contamination of porous aquifers. The DRASTIC, SINTACS and AVI methods have been applied to an alluvial coastal aquifer of southern Italy. The stratigraphic reconstruction has been obtained by interpolating stratigraphic data from more than one borehole per 2 square kilometres. The lithostratigraphic reconstruction of a 3D model has been applied and used for three-dimensional or bidimensional representations. In the first two methods, the layers of the vadose zone and the aquifer media have been evaluated not only by the interpolation of the single boreholes and piezometers, but also by the 3D model, assigning the scores of the parameters of each layer of the 3D model. The comparison between the maps constructed from the weighted values in each borehole and the maps deriving from the attribution of the values of each layer of the 3D model, highlights that the second representation avoids or minimizes the “bullseye” effect linked to the presence of boreholes with higher or lower values. The study has demonstrated that it is possible to integrate a 3D lithostratigraphic model of an aquifer in the assessment of the parameters involved in the evaluation of the aquifer vulnerability to contamination by Point Count System methods.