Groundwater vulnerability maps of large areas – application of drastic method in the national park “Djerdap”

GROUNDWATER VULNERABILITY MAPS OF LARGE AREAS – APPLICATION OF DRASTIC METHOD IN THE NATIONAL PARK “DJERDAP”

Veselin Dragišić¹, Vladimir Živanović¹, Miroslav Krmpotić¹, Dušan Polomčić¹, Nebojša Atanacković¹

¹ Faculty of mining and geology, Belgrade

ABSTRACT: Groundwater vulnerability methods became a standard tool for creating a base for sustainable groundwater management. In the past decade a number of new methods were created for more precise determination of groundwater vulnerability. However, for more precise evaluation of groundwater protection and vulnerability a large number of input parameters are needed and as a consequence the whole procedure became very complex. This is especially evident when groundwater vulnerability maps of large areas are created. That`s why the new methods are difficult to apply when small scale groundwater vulnerability maps are made. This paper describes the creation of groundwater vulnerability map of the National park Djerdap. The National park is situated in the southeast of Europe, in the northeast part of Serbia, along the border with Romania. The most famous natural phenomenon is the beautiful Djerdap canyon, through which the Danube River flows. The National park covers the area of 650 km2, and the protection zone of the park covers the area of nearly 940 km2. This large region is characterized by very complex geological structure which resulted in existence of different types of aquifers. This is the main reason why the DRASTIC method is chosen for creation of groundwater vulnerability map. Although this method combines seven different maps, each of them can easily be created in the small scale. The most difficult was to define the first two parameters (D – depth to groundwater and R – groundwater recharge) because of the lack of data. The maps of these two factors are made by using special GIS methodology which is also described in the paper.

Key words: groundwater vulnerability, small scale map, DRASTIC method