Groundwater contamination risk assessment is not only the basis of groundwater management, but also an effective tool for groundwater pollution control and prevention. This study aimed to assess the groundwater contamination risk in the Guanzhong Basin in Northwest China. A groundwater contamination risk assessment method is described, which combines intrinsic vulnerability assessment and pollution loading. A modified DRATICL model was proposed to evaluate the intrinsic vulnerability, and the weight of each evaluation factor was determined by combining AHP and entropy weight method. Pollution loading was evaluated by quantifying the characteristics of potential pollution sources, mainly including pollutant toxicity, pollutant release possibility and potential pollutant release amount. Finally, the evaluation results were verified by water quality index. The results show that the industrial area is the most harmful potential pollution source in the study area, followed by the landfill. Very high vulnerability areas are mainly around Huazhou District, Huayin and Dali County, as well as the low terraces around Zhouzhi and Hu County. The final groundwater contamination risk map shows that the groundwater contamination risk around Xi’an City, Xianyang City and Dali County is high. Among them, high vulnerability and high pollution loading coexist in the Jingwei District in the north of Xi'an City, which should be given priority attention.
 

Groundwater contamination risk; Potential pollution sources; Intrinsic vulnerability; DRASTIC; Guanzhong Basin