A regional flux-based risk assessment approach of contaminated sites on groundwater bodies

In the context of the Water Framework Directive, management plans have to be set up about water quality issues in surface and ground water bodies in the EU. In heavily industrialised and urbanised areas, the cumulative effect of multiple contaminant sources is likely to present a risk which has to be evaluated. In order to propose adequate measures, the calculated risk should be based on criteria reflecting the risk of water quality deterioration, in a cumulative way and at the scale of the whole surface water or groundwater body. An integrated GIS- and flux-based risk assessment approach for groundwater and surface water bodies is described with a regional scale indicator for the evaluation of the quality status of the groundwater body. It is based on the SEQ-ESO currently used in the Walloon Region of Belgium which defines, for different water uses and for a detailed list of groundwater contaminants, a set of threshold values reflecting the levels of water quality and degradation with respect to each contaminant. The methodology is illustrated with a first real scale application on a groundwater body corresponding to a contaminated alluvial aquifer which has been classified at risk of not reaching a good quality status by 2015.