ESCUELA SUPERIOR POLITCNICA

DEL LITORAL

PROJECT PROPOSAL

Vulnerability analysis of
Manglaralto aquifer using
Drastic Model
CRISTHIAN SNCHEZ PADILLA
February, 2017
Guayaquil - Ecuador
 OBJECTIVES

General Objective
To realize a map of groundwater vulnerability of the Manglaralto aquifer,
through the drastic model for the analysis of possible potential zones of
contamination.

Specific Objectives
To perform calculations with the required variables in the Drastic Model
using Raster Calculator.
To apply geological criteria to assign parameters to the Drastic Model
variables

PROBLEM & BACKGROUND

The area to study is located in the central coast of Ecuador, the Manglaralto
aquifer is located in the Santa Elena peninsula, has chosen this area because it
is of great importance in the communities that use this aquifer to meet the
needs that are presented daily and the tourism that is the main activity to which
the habitants are dedicated.

When making a vulnerability map, an interpretation of the contamination zones

can be obtained to later suggest controls in areas where the vulnerability index
is high. The Drastic Model is a method developed by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to get a system evaluation of the
potential for groundwater contamination.

STUDY ZONE

The Manglaralto aquifer has an area of 5.08 km 2, with an average thickness of

23 meters, The materials found are sand and gravel, the water table is below 16 m
from the surface, with a capacity groundwater aquifer 26'424162.4 m3 under ideal
conditions, whereas today is 8'533734.2 m3 capacity (Herrera, 2016).

The geomorphology of the area has soft reliefs to markedly abrupt that
consistent with the margins of the Chongn Colonche range, which define the
Quaternary deposits of which are formed the aquifer material. The Manglaralto
River originates in this mountain range to 700 meters and has a distance of
about 18 km from the mountainous coast to NE-SW direction (Vera y Silva,
2014).
 STUDY AREA

Figure 1.- Study Area

METHODOLOGY

In order to obtain the vulnerability map, the Drastic model will be used (Aller et
al., 1987). The method consists of a systematic evaluation of the groundwater
contamination potential in certain areas where an aquifer extends. The
variables considered are; water depth (D), recharge (R), aquifer media (A), soil
media (S), topography (T), impact of vadose zone (I) and hydraulic conductivity
(C). (Martinez et al., 1998)

It is necessary to note that for this methodology, it is considered that the

possible contaminant has the same mobility in the medium as the water, which
is infiltrated and added to the groundwater by recharge.

Water depth (D)

Water depth conditions the time in which a pollutant can generate chemical and
biological reactions, depth is inversely proportional to vulnerability (Aller et al.,
1987). The depth of the wells currently being worked will be used. Subsequently an
interpolation of the points will be done to generate the digital model of the piezometric
level.

Recharge (R)
Using the climatic data of the zone, will proceed to make a water balance
Precipitation - Evaporation Runoff, recharge is proportional to vulnerability
(Aller et al., 1987). This map will be obtained by the method proposed by (Gidahatari,
2014).

Soil Media (S)

The geological map of Ecuador will be used as base, defined by the type of
material that is in the geological unit and then reclassified according to the index
proposed by (Aller et al., 1987) for Drastic model (table 1).

Topography (T)

The contours zone shapefile is used to generate a digital elevation model and then a
slope raster according to the classification of the applied method (table 1).

Hydraulic conductivity (C)

This parameter is defined by fractures, bedding planes and intergranular voids

that allow the movement of water flow and contaminants as assumed at the
beginning by the Drastic model (Aller et al., 1987), so this parameter is
proportional to vulnerability and can be calculated using the transmissivity (m2
/day) and aquifer thickness (m), however, if possible, the lithopermeability map
of the zone will be used as a basis.

Aquifer Media (A)

This parameter will be used as in Soil Media, the geological map of Ecuador but
will be characterized according to the type of rock existing in the formation and
later classified according to the Drastic Model (table 1), this parameter is
proportional to the vulnerability.

Impact of vadose zone (I)

Impact of vadose zone is the area between the water table and the surface, using the
bibliography of the Manglaralto Aquifer, the type of material will be defined and
classified according to the Drastic Model index (table 1).
 Table 1.- Drastic Model Index

Source: Aller et al., EPA, 1987.

Table 2.- Weighting index

Parameters Weighting index (w)

Water depth (D) 5
Recharge (R) 4
Aquifer media (A) 3
Soil media (S) 2
Topography (T) 1
Impact of vadose zone (I) 5
Hydraulic conductivity (C) 3
Source: Aller et al., EPA, 1987.
The vulnerability index obtained is the result of adding the products of the
different parameters by their weighting index:

Higher the Value, greater vulnerability

Drastic Index = D r D w +R r R w +A r A w +S r S w +T r T w +I r I w +C r C w

Where w = weight (table 2) r = rank (table 1)

Figura 1.- Raster Calculator to obtain the Drastic Model.

The possible range of values of the DRASTIC index is between 23-226 with values
between 50-200 being more frequent, vulnerability ranges are defined based on the
application, for this project has been defined:

Table 3.- Vulnerability Index

Index
<50 Insignificant 0
50-75 Very low 1
75 100 Low 2
100 125 Moderate 3
125 150 High 4
150 175 Very high 5
>175 Extreme 6
Products

Figura 2.- Depth to water Level Map. (On legend it's observe the Drastic Model Index).

Figura 3.- Net Recharge Map. (On legend it's observe the Drastic Model Index).
 Figura 4.- Slope Map. (On legend it's observe the Drastic Model Index).

Figura 5.- Vadose Zone Map. (On legend it's observe the Drastic Model Index).
 Figura 6.- Hydraulic Conductivity Map.

Figura 7.- Aquifer Media Map. (On legend it's observe the Drastic Model Index).
 Figura 8.- Soil Media Map.

Figura 9.- Manglaralto Aquifer Vulnerability Map.

 CONCLUSION

When applying the Drastic Model to the study area, it was possible to show that
the most relevant variables are the depth of the well, the impact in the
unsaturated zone and the areas of recharge, the slopes is not relevant because
it is a zone Coastal areas where the topography is low.

The areas where there is greater vulnerability must be considered since the
inhabitants use this groundwater for their multiple uses. This contamination is
possibly due to the wastes of chemicals used in agriculture, wastewater,
meteoric waters, among other possible damages.

REFERENCES

Aller, T. Bennett, J. H. Lehr, R. J. Petty and G. Hackett, DRASTIC: A

Standardized System for Evaluating Groundwater Pollution Potential
Using Hydrogeologic Settings, US Environmental Protection Agency
Report 600/2-87/035, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington
DC, 1987.

Herrera, G. (2015). Estudio para un Modelo de Gestin de un

Acufero Costero, mediante Metodologas Participativas y Anlisis
Geoestadsticos en el marco del Desarrollo Local. Santa Elena,
Ecuador: Universidad Politcnica de Madrid.
Martnez, M.; Delgado, P.; Fabregat, V., (1998). Instituto Tecnolgico
Geominero de Espaa. Obtenido de:
http://aguas.igme.es/igme/publica/pdflib3/martinez.pdf

Stenson, M.P. & Stachotta, C.P., Queenslands Groundwater

Vulnerability Mapping Project. Queenslands Department of
Natural Resources.

Vera y Silva. (2014). Pruebas de tratabilidad para el diseo de

una planta de potabilizacin a partir de agua subterrnea de la
parroquia de Manglaralto, Santa Elena. Guayaquil.

Zghibi et al., 2016. Groundwater vulnerability analysis of Tunisian

coastal aquifer: An application of DRASTIC index method in GIS
environment.