Groundwater vulnerability assessment in coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul State,Brazil, using drastic and adsorption capacity of soils

Groundwater vulnerability assessment to delineate areas that are more susceptible to contamination has become an important element for resource management and land use planning. The objective of this work was to integrate hydrogeologic data in a geographic information system (GIS) for phreatic groundwater vulnerability assessment of a pilot area from the Coastal Plain of the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, using the DRASTIC method and adsorption capacity of soils. The studied ions were copper, lead, sulfate and phosphate. Using the original DRASTIC method, the vulnerability presented high values, mainly due to the texture of the sediments and the low depths of waters, which favor the accessibility of the contaminants to the groundwaters. DRASTIC with adsorption capacity of soils showed specifics results for each studied ion. Groundwater vulnerability to metals in relationship to anions was lower. These results show that the original DRASTIC method represents better contaminants with high mobility. An erratum to this article can be found at