Nitrate probability mapping in the northern aquifer alluvial system of the river Tagus (Portugal) using Disjunctive Kriging.

The Water Framework Directive and its daughter directives recognize the urgent need to adopt specific measures against the contamination of water by individual pollutants or a group of pollutants that present a significant risk to the quality of water. Probability maps showing that the nitrate concentrations exceed a legal threshold value in any location of the aquifer are used to assess risk of groundwater quality degradation from intensive agricultural activity in aquifers. In this paper we use Disjunctive Kriging to map the probability that the Nitrates Directive limit (91/676/EEC) is exceeded for the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone of the River Tagus alluvium aquifer. The Tagus alluvial aquifer system belongs to one of the most productive hydrogeological unit of continental Portugal and it is used to irrigate crops. Several groundwater monitoring campaigns were carried out from 2004 to 2006 according to the summer crops cycle. The study reveals more areas on the west bank with higher probabilities of contamination by nitrates (nitrate concentration values above 50mg/L) than on the east bank. The analysis of synthetic temporal probability map shows the areas where there is an increase of nitrates concentration during the summers. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.