A Comparative Study of Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Methods: Application in Gumma, Korea

Abstract

In the present study, several groundwater vulnerability assessment methods were applied to an agricultural area of Gumma in Korea. For the groundwater intrinsic vulnerability assessment, the performance of DRASTIC, SINTACS and GOD models was compared and an ensemble approach was suggested. M-DRASTIC and multi-linear regression (MLR) models were applied for the groundwater specific vulnerability assessment to nitrate of the study site. The correlation coefficient between the nitrate concentration and M-DRASTIC index was as low as 0.24. The result of the MLR model showed that the correlation coefficient is 0.62 and the areal extents of livestock farming and upland field are most influential factors for the nitrate contamination of groundwater in the study site.