Arab J Geosci
DOI 10.1007/s12517-010-0135-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
Mapping groundwater contamination risk using GIS
and groundwater modelling. A case study from the Gaza
Strip, Palestine
Husam Musa Baalousha
Received: 26 October 2009 / Accepted: 8 March 2010
# Saudi Society for Geosciences 2010
Abstract Increasing pressure on water resources worldwide
has resulted in groundwater contamination, and thus the
deterioration of the groundwater resources and a threat to the
public health. Risk mapping of groundwater contamination is
an important tool for groundwater protection, land use
management, and public health. This study presents a new
approach for groundwater contamination risk mapping, based
on hydrogeological setting, land use, contamination load, and
groundwater modelling. The risk map is a product of
probability of contamination and impact. This approach was
applied on the Gaza Strip area in Palestine as a case study. A
spatial analyst tool within Geographical Information System
(GIS) was used to interpolate and manipulate data to develop
GIS maps of vulnerability, land use, and contamination
impact. A groundwater flow model for the area of study was
also used to track the flow and to delineate the capture zones
of public wells. The results show that areas of highest
contamination risk occur in the southern cities of Khan Yunis
and Rafah. The majority of public wells are located in an
intermediate risk zone and four wells are in a high risk zone.
Keywords Groundwater contamination . Risk mapping .
GIS . MODFLOW . Capture zones . Vulnerability .
Gaza Strip . Drastic
H. M. Baalousha (*)
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council,
159 Dalton Street,
Napier 4110, New Zealand
e-mail: Baalousha@web.de
Introduction
Groundwater is an invaluable source of drinking water in
many areas around the world. Due to extensive pumping,
agricultural, and industrial activities, aquifers are at risk of
being contaminated. Intensive application of pesticides and
fertilisers, discharge of wastewater, and industrial effluent and
excessive groundwater abstraction are just a few examples of
activities that lead to groundwater contamination. These
activities have resulted in the deterioration of water resources
in various regions around the world (Pandey et al. 1999).
Aquifers are valuable sources for water. Therefore, a quick
action should be taken to prevent aquifers from contamina-
tion and to reduce the risk of contamination impact.
Groundwater contamination risk mapping can help
planners and decision-makers on proper land use and water
resources management. This will enable incorporation of
groundwater protection and health impact assessment in the
analysis. Risk mapping is not only a preventative measure
but it also assist with mitigation processes of groundwater
contamination.
Risk, by definition, is the probability of an event
multiplied by its impact. In environment context, risk is
the probability that a hazard will turn into a disaster. In
groundwater context, risk can be defined as the probability
that groundwater at a drinking well becomes contaminated
to an unacceptable level by activities on the land surface
(Morris and Foster 1998).
Risk can be reduced by implementing a mitigation
strategy with best management practice. Best practice
avoids high-risk areas when locating a site of possible
pollution potential.
 Arab J Geosci

Geographical Information System (GIS) has been widely
used in risk mapping (e.g., Bartels and Beurden 1998;
Ducci 1999; Al-Adamat et al. 2003; Mimi and Assi 2009).
It is very common to use intrinsic vulnerability either alone
or coupled with other factors to assess groundwater con-
tamination risk. The most widely used method for intrinsic
vulnerability assessment is the DRASTIC approach (Aller
et al. 1985). DRASTIC is based on seven hydrogeological
parameters: Depth to water table, Recharge, Aquifer media,
Soil media, Topography, Influence of vadose zone, and
hydraulic Conductivity to assess the intrinsic aquifer
vulnerability. Each map is classified and rated, then
weighted based on standard DRASTIC weigh system (Aller
et al. 1985). Vulnerability index is the sum of each rated
map multiplied by its respective weight as shown in the
equation below. The final DRASTIC product is a map
showing vulnerability index. DRASTIC has been used in
different studies to assess aquifer vulnerability (e.g.,
Lasserrea et al. 1999; Baalousha 2006; Nobre et al. 2007;
Assaf and Saadeh 2009).
drawback of geostatistical approach is that it does not
consider hydrogeological settings that have a significant
effect on contamination risk.
In this study, a new approach is proposed for contamination
risk mapping. This approach depends on the idea that
groundwater contamination risk is a product of probability
of contamination occurring and contamination impact. A
contamination risk map is a function of probability overlaid
with a map of potential impact of groundwater contamination.
The resultant convergence of probability of contamination and
contamination impact is and assessed geospatially on map as a
cross-product of the probability map and the contamination
impact map. In the case study presented in this paper, the
contamination probability map was created based on a
previous work by the author using the DRASTIC approach
(Baalousha 2006). In this paper, the vulnerability map was
coupled with land use to represent the probability of
contamination. The impact map was based on two factors:
health impact of major contaminants in the area of study and
the public water supply capture zone.

DRASTIC index ¼ Dr
Dw þ Rr
Rw þ Ar
Aw
Methodology
þ Sr
Sw þ Tr
Tw þ Ir
Iw
þ Cr
Cw ð1Þ The assessment of groundwater contamination risk requires
two main factors: probability of contamination and the
Where r and w denote DRASTIC rating and weight, contamination impact, as depicted in Fig. 1. For example,
respectively. when a site has a high contamination probability but has a
In many studies, vulnerability map was coupled with low impact of contamination, then the risk is low. But when
hazard map or land use map to produce risk maps (Ducci both contamination impact and probability of contamina-
1999). For example, Al-Adamat et al. (2003) have coupled
a DRASTIC vulnerability map with a land use map to
produce a risk map.
Intrinsic vulnerability is a good measure of weaknesses of
an aquifer, as it considers the hydrogeological characteristics
of the area under consideration. Intrinsic vulnerability alone,
however, is not a measure of risk. Using vulnerability alone,
or with land use to represent the risk, lacks the contamination
impact, which is an essential factor for risk assessment. In
addition, the movement of contaminants in the groundwater,
which affects the capture zone around wells, is not considered
in this approach. A highly vulnerable area, for instance, is not
under contamination risk unless it is susceptible to a
contamination source and the contamination impact is high.
Other approaches of groundwater contamination risk
mapping use a probability map of contaminants distribution
(Zhu et al. 2001; Wackernagel et al. 2004; Amini et al.
2005). The probability map approach uses geostatistics
(i.e., kriging) to interpolate the actual concentration of a
certain contaminant in groundwater and to create a
groundwater contamination probability map. The main Fig. 1 The concept of groundwater contamination risk mapping
Arab J Geosci
tion are high, then the risk is high. Thus, the contamination
risk (R) can be written as:
R ¼ pðcontÞ \ pðimpactÞ R 2 ½0; 1 ð2Þ
where, p(cont) is the probability of contamination; p(con) ∈
[0,1] and p(impact) is the impact of contamination; p
(impact) ∈ [0,1.
Using Eq. 2, a map of contamination probability can be
classified in the probability space; that is p ∈ [0,1], and the
same for contamination impact (Fig. 1). The cross-product
of both maps is the risk map.
A flowchart of stepwise methodology is shown in Fig. 2.
The first step is to prepare the contamination probability
map, which comprises intrinsic vulnerability and land use. In
this study, DRASTIC intrinsic vulnerability map was used
(Baalousha 2006). The vulnerability map was then coupled
with land use to create a probability map. It was important to
combine the land use map with the vulnerability map as both
affect the probability of contamination. The vulnerability
map shows intrinsic weaknesses of the hydrogeological
system and the land use map represents potential sources
of contamination (point source and non-point source) such as
wastewater treatment plants. Aquifers in high vulnerability
areas are more likely to be contaminated than other areas.
The impact map was based on a combination of two
factors. These factors are the contamination health-impact
of major contaminants in groundwater and the capture
zones of drinking water supply. The classification of the
impacts of different contaminants in groundwater is
important as different contaminants in groundwater have
differing impacts on public health. Nitrate contamination
health impact, for example, is worse than chloride contam-
ination (Baalousha 2008). Because the impact of contam-
ination is in the vicinity of the drinking water wells, it
Fig. 2 Groundwater contamination risk mapping
necessary to consider the capture zones of public water
supply.
For the study area, maps of vulnerability and land use were
combined using the Spatial Analyst tool of ArcMap from
ESRI® to produce a contamination probability map. The map
of well capture zones was combined with the map of
contamination health impact to produce a contamination impact
map. The final risk map was produced by multiplying the
contamination probability and the contamination impact maps.
The study area
The Gaza Strip area is located at longitudes 31° 25′ North and
latitude 34° 20′ East. It extends 40 km along the south-eastern
shore of the Mediterranean. The Strip is situated on a wide
Palestinian coastal plain. The total area of Gaza Strip is about
365 km2 and more than 1.4 million inhabitants are living in
this small area (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
(PCBS) 2009). The population density in Gaza Strip is one of
the highest in the world, especially in the eight refugee camps.
Because of its location, the Gaza Strip forms a transitional
zone between the semi-humid coastal area in the north and the
semi-arid Sinai desert in the south (EUROCONSULT and
IWACO 1994). The area is characterised by a Mediterranean
climate with 4 months of hot dry summer and a short winter with
rain from November to March. The average summer and winter
temperatures in Gaza Strip are 25°C and 7°C, respectively.
Hydrogeology and water resources
The aquifer system in Gaza Strip is part of the larger
Palestinian coastal plain hydrogeological system, which
extends from Haifa City in the north to Sinai desert in the
south and over an area of about 2,000 km2 (Metcalf and
Eddy 2000). The Palestinian coastal plain is characterised
by flat relief, and is bounded to the east by the foothills of
the West Bank mountain belt. This plain is narrow in the
north and gets wider in the south. It has an average width of
about 13 km. The main aquifer formation is composed of
calcareous sandstone and gravel from the Pleistocene age
and recent Holocene sand dunes. Some silts, clay, and
conglomerate exist in the aquifer formation. Three main
clay layers intercalate the aquifer and divide it into three
main sub-aquifers in the west (Fig. 3). These clay layers
extend from the shore in the west to about 3-5 km inland.
Thus, the aquifer is mainly unconfined in the eastern part and
confined/unconfined in the western part. Aquifer thickness
varies from a few metres in the east of Gaza Strip to about
170 m near the shoreline. The aquifer overlies thick
impermeable marine clay of the Tertiary age called the
Saqaya Formation (EUROCONSULT and IWACO 1994).
 Arab J Geosci

Fig. 3 Conceptual hydrogeological west-east cross-section

Fig. 4 Vulnerability map for

the Gaza Strip based on
DRASTIC approach
Arab J Geosci
Fig. 5 Land use map for
the Gaza Strip and locations
of wastewater treatment
plants (WWTP)
Groundwater is the only source of water supply in the
area as there is almost no surface water. The natural
groundwater flow pattern is from east to west. However, the
natural flow pattern was disturbed due to intensive pumping
at different locations, especially in densely populated areas
like Gaza City.
Wadi Gaza (ephemeral stream) runs across the Gaza
Strip from the Naqab desert and the Hebron Mountains in the
east and drains into the Mediterranean. The catchment area of
Wadi Gaza is about 3,500 km2 (United Nations 2003). Before
1967, flash floods in the Wadi closed the main motorway in
the strip for few days each year (Al-Agha 1995). However,
no water flows in this Wadi anymore since Israel has built
many dams just behind the border of the Gaza Strip
preventing most of the natural water flow from reaching
Gaza (Al-Agha 1995; EUROCONSULT and IWACO 1994;
United Nations 2003). Currently, the Wadi is used as an
effluent discharge channel for the raw sewage from refugee
camps adjacent to the watercourse, estimated at 6,000-
8,000 m3/day (United Nations 2003).
The coastal aquifer beneath the Gaza Strip is recharged
by rainfall, at an average annual rate of 300 mm (data
obtained from Palestinian Water Authority). Only part of
this precipitation percolates into the aquifer and contributes
to aquifer recharge and the rest is lost evapotranspiration.
DRASTIC vulnerability
The intrinsic vulnerability map for the Gaza Strip was
created using the DRASTIC approach (Fig. 4), which was
done by author (Baalousha 2006), and briefly discussed
hereafter. Seven maps were prepared using ArcGIS. Hydro-
geological parameters for DRASTIC mapping such as
hydraulic conductivity and aquifer properties were based on
literature data and data obtained from the Palestinian Water
Authority (PWA). Groundwater recharge data was based on a
previous study (Baalousha 2005). Topography data was
obtained from PWA in digital format, and groundwater level
records were obtained from monitoring data of PWA.
Figure 4 shows that areas close to the coast have the
highest vulnerability. This is because groundwater is shallow
in that area and the area is covered by sand dune formations.
In addition, this area receives the highest recharge. On the
contrary, the area east of Khan Yunis has the lowest
 Arab J Geosci

Table 1 Different land uses and their potential pollution impact level agricultural practices, including the heavy application of
(Baalousha 1998) pesticides and fertiliser and leakage from three sewage
treatment plants. In built-up areas such as Khan Yunis City,
Land use Impact
the use of cesspits is the only means for domestic
Wastewater treatment plants and unsewered areas 6 (high) wastewater discharge. High levels of nitrate have been
Green houses 5 detected in groundwater in that area. The detected high
Citrus 4 nitrate concentrations are directly related to wastewater
Grapes 3 leakage (Baalousha 2008).
Olives 2
Some types of agriculture such as citrus traditionally
Dates and almonds 1
receive higher fertiliser loadings, and thus, their environ-
Open fields (no irrigation) 0 (low)
mental impact is high. Other types of agriculture like dates
and olives may have less potential impact on the environ-
ment. These have been classified from high to low in
vulnerability because the vadose zone is thick and the Table 1.
recharge rates are low.
Contamination probability map
Land use
The groundwater contamination probability map (Fig. 6) is
The land use map of the Gaza Strip is shown in Fig. 5. The a combination of the DRASTIC index vulnerability map
main potential source of contamination in the area is from (Fig. 4) and the land use map (Fig. 5). Both DRASTIC

Fig. 6 Probability of ground-

water contamination in the
Gaza Strip
Arab J Geosci
index and land use were given equal weights as they
equally affect the groundwater contamination and reclassi-
fied within the probability space.
Well capture zone
An existing finite difference groundwater flow model
(Baalousha 2003) was used as a basis to delineate capture
zones of public drinking water supply wells in the area at
different times (1, 2, 5 and 20 years). The advective
transport code PMPATH of Processing MODFLOW pack-
age was used for this purpose (McDonald and Harbaugh
1988).
The aquifer system consists of calcareous sandstone and
conglomerate with intermittent clay layers of different
thicknesses. The basement of the aquifer is a thick
impermeable clay layer called the “Saqya Formation”
(Fig. 3). Groundwater flows from east to west, perpendic-
ular to the shoreline. The western boundary of the model
(the Mediterranean) was considered a constant head
boundary.
Fig. 7 Modeled capture zones
of public water supply wells in
the Gaza Strip
The recharge boundary was based on rainfall-recharge
analysis. Annual rainfall varies between 200 mm in the
south to 450 mm in the north.
There are about 110 municipal water wells for public
water supply in the Gaza Strip. Drinking water well
abstraction data was obtained from PWA. The hydraulic
properties were obtained from pumping test data, PWA, and
from literature (i.e., Metcalf and Eddy 2000).
Particle tracking (Pollock 1989) within the Processing
Modflow Package was used to delineate the capture zones of
public water wells at different time intervals. The backward
tracking (Fig. 7) shows capture zones for periods of 1, 5, 10,
and 20 years. Potential pollution in areas within capture zones
of wells will have a higher impact on public health. All known
public water supply wells have been considered in this study.
Potential sources of pollutants and their possible impact
In the Gaza Strip, nitrate is considered a major groundwater
contaminant (Shomar et al. 2008) and is believed to be
anthropogenic (Al-Agha 1997; Baalousha 2008).

Fig. 8 Nitrate, chloride, and
fluoride impact map for the
Gaza Strip
Infants of 6 months or less are the most vulnerable to
nitrate impact in drinking water, as it can cause methae-
moglobinaemia (also known as blue baby syndrome).
Several cases of methemoglobin have been reported in
Gaza Strip in the last few years (Abu Maila et al. 2004).
Pathogens and viruses can also arise from wastewater
discharge and agricultural activities. While pathogens and
viruses may be naturally eliminated through attenuation
processes in the unsaturated zone, nitrate is more difficult to
mitigate.
The second widely spread contaminant in groundwater
in the area is chloride, resulting in high salinity. There is no
known health impact of high chloride in groundwater. The
250 mg/l maximum concentration limit assigned by World
Health Organisation (WHO 2004) is aesthetic based.
However, high chloride makes water non-potable. Less
than 10% of groundwater in the area meets the WHO
standards for chloride. There are two sources of high
chloride concentrations in the area. The first is through
seawater intrusion, especially in Khan Yunis area (Yakirevich
et al. 1998) and the Gaza City area. The other source is up-
Arab J Geosci
coning of brackish water and brines as a result of heavy
pumping (e.g., Gaza City, Khan Yunis; Qahman and Larabi
2003).
Fluoride in groundwater originates from phosphates
derived by natural dissolution of phosphate minerals and
long-term weathering of phosphates (Al-Agha 1995). High
fluoride concentrations, above the WHO limit (1.5 mg/l) have
been detected in the southern areas of Gaza Strip (i.e., Khan
Yunis and Rafah). Excess amount of fluoride in groundwater
can cause fluorosis, which affects the teeth and bones (WHO
2009). Long-term ingestion of fluoride can lead to potentially
severe skeletal problems (WHO 2004). There is a high dental
fluorosis index in Gaza Strip (WHO 1999). Shomar et al.
(2004) have found a correlation between high fluoride
concentration in drinking water and dental fluorosis among
school children in the Gaza Strip.
Other pollutants such as heavy metals were found to
have concentrations below the maximum permissible limits
assigned by the WHO. In summary, the major identified
contaminants in the area are nitrate, fluoride, and chloride.
Areas where these parameters exceed the maximum
Arab J Geosci
permissible limits for drinking water have been identified
based on up to date monitoring data from PWA (WHO
2004). Figure 8 shows the resulting impact from a
combination of exceedance of the three parameters. Nitrate
and chloride data from 1990 to date was obtained from
PWA. Fluoride data was obtained from the Ministry of
Health. Nitrate and fluoride were given double weights as
chloride in the pollutants impact map, as they pose higher
threat to health than chloride.
Impact map
The impact map was prepared as a combination of the
capture zone of the drinking water wells and the health
impact of different contaminant in the area of study. The
following sections outline the procedure of each map
preparation and the combination of the capture zone map
and health impact map to produce the impact map.
The final impact map was created by combining the
capture zone map and pollutants impact map (Figs. 7 and 8,
Fig. 9 Impact map for the Gaza
Strip based on well capture
zones and potential contamina-
tions in the groundwater
respectively). The resultant map of impact is shown in
Fig. 9.
Risk map
The final risk map was obtained as a cross-product of the
probability map (Fig. 6) and the impact map (Fig. 9). The
global risk map is shown in Fig. 10. Risk varies between
0.0244, which is minimal to 0.786, which is high. The risk
range was divided into equal intervals, as shown in Fig. 10.
Discussion
Contamination risk mapping of the Gaza Strip shows that
approximately 34% of the area (124 km2) is located in the
very low-risk zone and just less than half of its area 46.5%
or 170 km2 falls within the low-risk zone (Fig. 10 and
Table 2). Intermediate and high-risk areas constitute
19.45% of the entire area or 71 km2.
 Arab J Geosci

Fig. 10 Risk map of ground-

water contamination for the
Gaza Strip

Analysis of results revealed that four municipal wells out
of 110 municipal wells are located in a high contamination-
risk zone (risk more than 0.6). The four wells are L/87, L/
127, L/43, P/124 and all are located in the Khan Yunis and
Rafah areas. Sampling results of these wells show that they
have nitrate concentration of more than 200 mg/l on
average, which is four times higher than WHO drinking
water standards. The majority of wells (88 wells) are
located in the intermediate-risk zone, with the remainder in
the low-risk zone. It is important to take action to mitigate
the potential health impact of drinking water from wells in
the high-risk zones. Such mitigation measure can be
achieved using water from these wells for non-drinking
purposes or treating the water before drinking.
Figure 10 shows that there are areas where groundwater
contamination risk is low or very low. These areas are the
south-eastern and northern areas of Gaza Strip. However,
the aquifer in the south-eastern area is non-productive as
the vadose zone there is thick providing high contamination
attenuation capacity. Some narrow coastal areas at Khan
Yunis and Rafah in the south have low risk too, because
these areas receive high recharge (covered by sand dunes)

Table 2 Results of the Gaza

Strip groundwater contamina- Risk class Risk index Area (km2) Percentage of total area (%)
tion risk mapping
Very low 0.0-0.1 124.0 33.97
Low 0.1-0.3 170.0 46.57
Intermediate 0.3-0.6 69.7 19.09
High 0.6-0.8 1.3 0.36
Arab J Geosci
and pumping is not intensive. Other areas of low risk are at
the eastern boundaries of Gaza Strip, where the pumping
and vulnerability are both low.
Conclusions
This study proposes a new approach for groundwater
contamination risk assessment accounting for hydrogeolog-
ical factors, land use, public wells capture zones, and
contamination potential impact. It is easy to implement and
can be modified to suit local conditions. The use of GIS
facilitates the preparation, classification, and mathematical
calculation that are required to produce the intermediary
and final maps.
Results of the case study presented in this paper show
that the majority of the area falls within the low-risk zones,
with a small area within the high-risk zone. The majority of
public wells are in the intermediate-risk zone with few in
the high-risk zone in the southern part of the area. Wells in
that area shows very high concentrations of nitrate and
chloride (Baalousha 2008).
Though the majority of public wells are located in the
intermediate-risk zone, the risk will probably increase with
time as a result of widening the well capture zone, and the
ever increasing in groundwater abstraction. Intensive
pumping results in upconning of lower brackish ground-
water, and thus, deteriorating the groundwater quality and
posing a threat to public health.
It is recommended that a groundwater abstraction strategy
be adopted in light of the findings of this study. The risk map
created in this study can be used in the development of land
management policy and practice, locating high pollution
potential sources (i.e., treatment plants, landfills, etc.), and
implementation of a mitigation strategy. One potential
mitigation measure is to reduce groundwater pumping and
gradually secure water from alternative source such as
desalination, which is already implemented. An alternative
measure is to use water from high-risk zones for non-
drinking purposes.
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