Olive Mill Waste Water Hazard Evaluation Reliant on GIS Approach in Chania, Greece

Water resources are subjected to different pollution sources. Water pollution is a major concern to the public due to its drastic impacts on both levels of human and habitat health. Olive Mill Waste Water is the principle point source water pollution in different territories across the Mediterranean. OMWW is a secondary product produced during the production of Olive Oil. Due to the lack of consistent method to evaluate point source of pollution generated by OMWW on a river basin scale, the current research relies on a quantifiable approach to assess OMWW as point source water pollution on sub-catchment level. Current methodology utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) modelling to classify within a watershed individual sub-catchment risk of water pollution occurring from olive mill waste discharges. The research presents the proposed criteria and calculations required to estimate sub-catchment risk significance and comments on the methods potential for wider application. This research combines elements from risk assessment frameworks Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) and GIS. MCA helped in aggregating different aspects and elements associated with this environmental problem, while GIS modelling tools helped in obtaining many criterion values and providing insight into how different objects interact in the nature and how these interactions influence risk at the watershed level. The proposed method was tested in Chania prefecture in Crete, Greece. Conducted results proved that the implement methodology is with a great potential of prioritizing and evaluating OMWW as a source of water pollution on a river basin scale. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.