Sustainability
of Groundwater Resources and its Indicators (Proceedings of symposium S3 held during the
Seventh IAHS Scientific Assembly at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, April 2005). IAHS
Publ. 302, 2006, 21-28.
Indicators and indexes of groundwater quality sustainability
ANNA BELOUSOVA
Water Problems Institute Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Gubkina str., 119991 Moscow, Russia
Abstract A structure of environmental indicators, based on Pressure, State, Response indicators was developed. The structure of the indexes describing the quantitative maintenance of Pressure and State indicators, reflecting the groundwater sustainability in conditions of anthropogenic loading, is the result. These indexes that characterize indicators of Pressure and State are subdivided by their content into the following groups: indexes of damage; indexes of pollution (chemical indexes); static indexes (hydrogeochemical indexes); dynamic indexes; and indexes of interaction (including protectability and vulnerability indexes). Assessing and compiling maps of groundwater sustainability using indicators and indexes has an advantage over other methods due to the complexity and the fact that it is also a stage in a general structure of assessing sustainable development of the studied regions. The way to estimate risk and damage to groundwater from pollution using indicators and indexes of groundwater quality sustainability is considered.
Key words
damage;
groundwater quality; indexes; indicators; risk; sustainable development