Methods of Groundwater Vulnerability and Protectability Assessment - Groundwater Vulnerability: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster - page 23

In the present work an attempt is made to assess the groundwater vulnerability
of the upper (Quaternary) and first confined (Eocene) aquifers of the Dnieper
River basin area (Kyiv region) in Ukraine to contamination with Chernobyl-born
137 Cs, taking into account the PFMZ associated with depressions. A methodology
is proposed for this purpose based on the 1D contaminant transport model and
3D groundwater flow model of the study area as well as available data of observed
groundwater contamination obtained during the postaccident period.
As Shestakov [2003] notes, it is necessary to formulate the question of possible
manifestations of heterogeneity in the geological medium during the solution of
any hydrogeodynamic problem. Any study of hydrogeodynamic processes cannot
be considered complete if the influences of rock heterogeneity on these processes
have not been analyzed. This conclusion is especially acute in questions of ground-
water vulnerability and protectability assessments.