New articles published: V. 14 n. 3 (2026)

Groundwater vulnerability and radioecological hazard assessment in a semiarid watershed within the context of uranium mining in Caetité, Brazil

Abstract: In arid and semiarid watersheds, groundwater is the most reliable source of water all year-round, being used for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. In such a context, conflicts over groundwater quality and/or supply are not rare. The lack of communication tools between the stakeholders hinders conflict resolution. A categorical example of such areas can be found at the Caetité Experimental Basin (CEB), where, from time to time, conflicts between stakeholders and the Uranium Production Unit (URA) take place. The CEB is a headwater, semiarid, ephemeral, hard-rock watershed, and groundwater vulnerability and radioecological hazard studies in this area are rare and outdated. Therefore, the present work aimed to map groundwater vulnerability and radioecological hazards posed by the URA to the CEB groundwater system through three index-based methodologies: the standard DRASTIC model, a locally-adapted DRASTIC-URA, and the Radioecological Hazard Index (RHI). Although most of the CEB presents low intrinsic groundwater vulnerability, the areas under the source terms are not equally vulnerable, and the most hazardous source term, from the point of view of radioecological impacts, is close to a highly vulnerable area. Such maps and indexes may be proven useful as a screening and communicative tool, since they illustrate the groundwater vulnerability distribution at CEB, as well as provide a way to compare it to other areas around the world. Read full article.