Analysis of correlation between the state of groundwater and the state of terrestrial ecosystems including wetlands

Abstract

Analysis of correlation between the state of terrestrial ecosystems and groundwater aims the preservation of natural state of ecosystems in terms of sustainable exploitation of groundwater. The proposed analysis determines the intensity of dependence between ecosystems and groundwater based on two categories of criteria: hydrogeological criteria (HC: lithology of aquifer formations, vadose zone humidity, piezometric level depth and qroundwater quality) and environmental criteria (EC: the number of characteristic organisms, production function, role in cycling elements etc.). The analysis contains two algorithms: one for identifying the potential ecosystems dependent on groundwater and one for estimating the intensity of interdependence on three levels: high dependence (A: 100%), medium dependence (B: 50%) and nule dependence (C: 0%). Validation of the proposed analysis was conducted on a case study in Oltenia. In the selected area, the evaluation of dependence intensity for each Nature 2000 site was made using one criteria that maximizes the dependence and one that minimizes. The proposed analysis uses GIS techniques and a database supplied with information from public monitoring systems of groundwater, SCIs-Nature2000 and habitats, Corine Land Cover databases.