Groundwater Quality and Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

Groundwater resources are under intense anthropogenic pressures and constant threat of pollution. Human activities, such as agriculture, urbanization and industry, have caused irreversible degradation of groundwater quality; therefore, prevention is the most appropriate strategy in the fight against groundwater pollution. Vulnerability and pollution risk maps of groundwater constitute important tools for groundwater management and protection. Groundwater vulnerability is divided into specific vulnerability and intrinsic vulnerability. Intrinsic vulnerability of an aquifer can be defined as the ease with which a contaminant introduced onto the ground surface can reach and diffuse in groundwater. Specific vulnerability is used to define the vulnerability of groundwater to particular contaminants or a group of contaminants by taking into account the contaminants’ physicochemical properties and their relationships. Groundwater pollution risk can be defined as the process of estimating the possibility that a particular event may occur under a given set of circumstances and the assessment is achieved by overlaying hazard and vulnerability.

This Special Issue will focus on exploring application of groundwater vulnerability and pollution risk assessment in porous, karst and fissured rock aquifers located in coastal and inland zones. We invite the interested hydrogeologists and other researchers from the related fields to contribute high-quality original research as well as review articles in the stated issue.

Prof. Dr. Konstantinos Voudouris
Dr. Kazakis Nerantzis
Guest Editors

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