51 / 2023-12-25 13:45:27

Analyzing Vulnerability of Guacara and San Diego Aquifers, Venezuela

aquifer vulnerability,water resources,water resources management

The purpose of this work is to analyze the vulnerability of the aquifers of the municipalities of Guacara and San Diego, in Carabobo state, Venezuela, estimating the degrees of vulnerability to contamination as very low, low, moderate, high and very high in different sectors of municipalities on the monthly scale of the years in the period 2015-2017. Information was collected that allowed the location and identification of the geophysical properties of the wells located in the municipalities of Guacara and San Diego. This information was obtained from the Ministry of Ecosocialism and Water, Guacara Water Autonomous Municipality Institute and Compañía Hidrológica del Centro, C.A. The geophysical composition of the wells under study in the municipalities of Guacara and San Diego was described, using the ArcGIS 10.0 program, licensed by the Center for Hydrological and Environmental Research of the University of Carabobo, making maps of terrain elevation, terrain slope, effective porosity, permeability, transmissivity and saturated thickness of the Guacara and San Diego aquifers. The application of DRASTIC method (i.e. D ( Depth ), R ( Recharge ), A (Aquifer ), S ( Soil ), T ( Topography ), I ( Impact ), C ( Hydraulic conductivity )) to estimate the vulnerability of the Guacara and San Diego aquifers, was carried out with information collected in the field and processed using the ArcGIS 10.0 software. With this software, the different factor maps of the DRASTIC method were created. The aquifer vulnerability maps were generated to represent monthly the degrees of vulnerability of the aquifers of the municipalities of Guacara and San Diego. The Guacara and San Diego aquifers were composed of 48.74% sand or gravel, sandstone, and massive limestone. As net recharge increased, vulnerability increased in areas of high elevation and steep terrain slopes. The vulnerability of the Guacara and San Diego aquifers was spatially distributed in the municipalities between (3-10) % at high levels, (60 -79) % at moderate levels, (14-30) % at low levels and (4-7) % at very low level.