Vulnerability of groundwater to pollution using VLDA model in Halabja Saidsadiq Basin, Iraq.

Groundwater considered being the most vital source of water in several regions in the world. Specifically in the Halabja-Saidsadiq Basin, groundwater plays an important role as one of the essential source of water supplies. Therefore, it needs to be taken care of. In this study, VLDA method applied to model a map of groundwater vulnerability to contamination. The VLDA models classified the area into four categories with different coverage areas: low (2%), moderate (44%), high (53%) and very high (1%). After constructing every vulnerability map, it required to be confirmed in order to estimate the validity of the theoretical sympathetic of current hydrogeological conditions. In this study, nitrate concentration analysis was selected as a contamination indicator to validate the result. The nitrate concentration on two different seasons (dry and wet) was analyzed from (30) watering wells, considerable variations in nitrate concentration from dry to wet seasons had been noted. Consequently, it points toward that groundwater in the HSB are capable to receive the contaminant due to suitability of overlies strata in terms of geological and hydrogeological conditions. Based on this confirmation, the result exemplifies that the degree and distribution of vulnerability classes acquired using VLDA model is more sensible.Godkänd; 2016; 20160614 (nadhir