Influence of agricultural irrigation activity on the potential risk of groundwater pollution: A study with drastic method in a semi-arid agricultural region of China

Abstract

Agricultural irrigation strongly affects groundwater pollution in cultivated areas. Groundwater vulnerability was evaluated using the DRASTIC method by considering agricultural activities that affect water infiltration and pollutant transport to the groundwater. Three scenarios, using different water recharge sources and calculation methods, were considered for the Tongliao area of northern China. For Scenario 1, only precipitation contributed to the net recharge estimation and ~33.77% of the area was under high pollution risk. For Scenarios 2 and 3, both precipitation and irrigation return water were considered for net recharge estimations. The fractional areas of high pollution risk regions were 40.60% and 19.22% for Scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. The modified infiltration coefficients for this study area were used in Scenario 3, and the fractional area of the high-risk region was 21.38% lower than for Scenario 2. The use of empirical infiltration coefficients in Scenario 2 overestimated the water infiltration ability in the cultivated areas, which also overestimated the fractional area of high-risk regions in this study. Accurate assessment of the impact of agricultural activities on the groundwater pollution risk is essential for cultivated areas. Emphasis should be placed on the calculation method of proper parameters for DRASTIC model construction.