Groundwater underlies all of Scotland and is an important resource for drinking water and sustaining ecosystems.  Many industries produce contaminants which are mobile in the aquatic environment and as a result groundwater, together with the ecosystems and abstractions it supports are often susceptible to these surface contaminants.

Point and diffuse pollutants can impact upon groundwater and surface water....
(Courtesy of Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research)

The Aquifer and Vulnerability Maps have been developed as tools for addressing the susceptibility (or ‘vulnerability’) of groundwater to contaminant sources. The maps are to be applied to the source-pathway-receptor risk assessment framework for groundwater in Scotland. They provide a simplified, national-scale overview of variations in key properties of the subsurface.

• Source (or pressure):  
  Certain activities may have the potential to contaminate, depending on the type and scale of the activity;

• Subsurface Pathway:  
  The ability of the pathway to attenuate source contaminants depends on the underground strata lying between the source and the receptor;

• Receptors:
  Depending on source type, these can be groundwater in its own right and /or, down-gradient receptors such as wells, wetlands and springs.
  
  
  
  

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