Groundwater Vulnerability of Halabja-Khurmal Sub-Basin Using Modified DRASTIC Method

Evolving groundwater vulnerability from DRASTIC to modified DRASTIC methods helps choose the most accurate areas that are most delicate toward pollution. This study aims to modify DRASTIC with land use and water quality index for groundwater vulnerability assessment in the Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin, NE/Iraq. The Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin groundwater vulnerability index is calculated from nine hydrogeological parameters by the overlay weighting method. As a result, 1.3% of the total area has a very high vulnerability value and 46.1% with high vulnerability. The regions with high groundwater vulnerability have a high-water table and groundwater recharge. Nitrate concentration was used to validate the result, and the Pearson correlation and recession analysis between the modified DRASTIC index and nitrate concentration depicted a strong relation with 0.76 and 0.7, respectively.

Automated summary

This study modified the DRASTIC method by incorporating land use and water quality index to assess groundwater vulnerability in the Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin in NE/Iraq. The results showed that 1.3% of the total area had very high vulnerability and 46.1% had high vulnerability. The modified DRASTIC index demonstrated a strong correlation with nitrate concentration.