Iran-Water Resources Research

Iran-Water Resources Research

Vulnerability Assessment in Karst Aquifers with EPIK and COP Indices Calibration

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hamid Kardan Moghadam 1
Amir Reza Nemati Mansour 2
Abbas Akbarzadeh 3
Ali Mirarabi 4
1 Department of Water Resources Studies and Research, Water Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
2 Graduate, Water resource management, University of Tehran, Iran.
3 Research Assistant Professor, Water and Wastewater Research Center (WWRC), Water Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
4 Water Resources Management Company (WRM), Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/iwrr.2025.501604.2824
Abstract
One of the most important sources of water for extraction and exploitation is karst water resources, the exploitation of which has grown greatly due to the trends in exploiting aquifers and the decline in those resources. This exploitation increase has the potential to pollute water resources due to the set of man-made interventions. Therefore, the recognition of development potentials should be based on the vulnerability of these resources. This study aims to determine the vulnerability of the Dorfak Karst aquifer with two indices of Epikarst (EPIK) and Coefficient of Permeability (COP). According to the geological studies, the type of karst formations and the karst network in the region, the parameters of each extraction index were obtained and the final index was calculated. After determining each index, the level of vulnerability based on the quality of water in the springs as the output of a karst basin was used for calibration. Using the whale optimization algorithm aiming at maximized correlation between the vulnerability index and the qualitative index, the calibration was done by changing the weights and ranks of each index. The results showed that the correlation between the two vulnerability indices and the quality index was improved in the calibration process and the EPIK index has higher accuracy. It is also shown that the correlation index increased and improved from 0.34 to 0.57 for the EPIK index. Based on the results the vulnerability index calibration approach based on regional springs offers appropriate capabilities for evaluation in karst environments.
 
Keywords
Vulnerability, EPIK, COP, Groundwater Quality Index (GQI)

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 22 January 2025
  • Revise Date 25 February 2025
  • Accept Date 25 February 2025