The protection of groundwaters destined for human consumption in karstic aquifers. Advances towards safeguard zones

Abstract

Carbonate aquifers constitute a water reserve of critical importance as a source of drinking water. For this, it is necessary to establish suitable protection measures so that groundwater bodies can achieve good status as required by theWater Framework Directive (WFD). As a general protectionmeasure, the first advances in the development of a methodology to delimit safeguard zones are presented here. Carbonate aquifers in the south of Spain have been selected as pilot zone for the application of the three phases or stages of work proposed. Initial results obtained, following the application of the selected criteria (vulnerability, pressures, recharge and hydrogeological characteristics) show that the advance in the successive phases allows the necessary protection areas for these types of aquifers to be delimited.