4.5 Article

Multi-criteria decision model for assessing groundwater pollution risk in the urban-rural interface of Mar del Plata City (Argentina)

Journal

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
Volume 191, Issue 6, Pages -

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7485-1

Keywords

Aquifer hazard; Social vulnerability; Multi-criteria decision analysis; Management instruments

Funding

  1. Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica [PICT 2013 0714, PICT 2013 2019]
  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET) [PIP 0350]
  3. Mar del Plata National University [EXA 792/16]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

In developing countries, conflict between the objectives of environmental policies and those focused on economic development, a low availability of human resources and infrastructure, and the lack of continuity and incentives, contribute to the inability to successfully implement environmental policies. Moreover, in these countries, population growth in the peri-urban areas has resulted in serious water pressures, poor water management, and severe non-point source pollution. The aim of this paper is to implement a procedure of aquifer pollution risk assessment for identifying priority areas in an urban-rural interface based on multi-criteria decision tools. In this sense, a multi-criteria decision model was designed, in terms of environmental and socio-economic criteria and sub-criteria relevant to water resource management, by using the software Criterium Decision Plus 4.0. This model was applied to the northwestern peri-urban area of Mar del Plata City, Argentina, which is embedded in the second most important fruit-horticultural belt of the country. Here, groundwater is the only source of water supply. The proposed decision model allowed establishing a ranking of priority areas for defining action guidelines in order to minimize the risk of pollution of the aquifer. Aquifer pollution hazard criterion mainly contributes to alternatives classified as very high priority whilst in the case of low and very low priority classes, social vulnerability criterion mostly influences the final results. The first alternatives will require an intervention in a short-term time horizon, and the last ones must be monitored in order to avoid their shift to a worse environmental condition.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.5
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available