Abstract
Groundwater is vulnerable to contamination by anthropological activities. Vulnerability mapping isconsidered as a fundamental aspect of groundwater management. The aim of this study was to estimate aquifervulnerability by applying the DRASTIC and GOD models in F’kirina agricultural plain northern Algeria. TheDRASTIC model uses seven environmental parameters (depth to water, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media,topography, impact of vadose zone, and hydraulic conductivity) to characterize the hydrogeological setting andevaluate aquifer vulnerability. GOD is an overlay and index method designed to map groundwater vulnerabilityover large regions based on three parameters (groundwater confinement, overlying strata, and depth togroundwater). The information layers for models were provided via geographic information system. The resultsshowed that the DRASTIC model is better than GOD model to estimate groundwater vulnerability to pollutionin the measured wells. For DRASTIC model, the correlation coefficient between vulnerability index and nitrateconcentration was 68 % that was substantially higher than 28 % obtained for the GOD model. We can concludethat nitrate concentration should be a suitable parameter to investigate the accuracy of the DRASTIC and GODmodels.