Contamination risk of the Alburni karst aquifer (southern Italy)

To evaluate the contamination risk of the aquifer of the Alburni karst area the knowledge of the human impact on groundwater is important. The adopted groundwater contamination risk assessment method follows the approach of previous studies, optimised by developing new analytical procedures using a GIS, to construct and overlay thematic maps. The following three main layers have been created to assess the groundwater contamination • the vulnerability map; • the hazard map; • the value map. The final map shows interesting results, especially regarding the contamination due to the contents in metals and trace elements in breeding residues, and stresses the need for the GIS to test and improve on the groundwater contamination risk assessment methods.