Concepts and backgrounds
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.