Groundwater vulnerability risk maps using GIS and DRASTIC index method for Jeddah City, Western Saudi Arabia

الملخص EN

Jeddah city, located in western Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coast, is highly developed and has been showing rapid expansion in land use for the past 3 decades.

The exponential expansion does not meet the city planning for the services such as water supply and sewage network systems.

Soil and natural groundwater are subject to contamination on the basis of hydrogeological and anthropogenic factors.

This study presents a new approach to produce soil and groundwater vulnerability and risk maps for Jeddah city using GIS and DRASTIC index.

The seven factors of this model were collected, analyzed and manipulated using Kriging techniques.

The final vulnerability risk maps of soil and groundwater were produced utilizing GIS system for the city.

The results in the form of DRASTIC index map show potential for groundwater pollution at high to very high risk in the whole area, (e.g.

high nitrate concentrations.

Adding more anthropogenic and land-use factors to the model might help in the future planning and the development of Jeddah.