Coupling isotope hydrogeochemistry and social sciences to assess agricultural and domestic impacts in rural zones: the Bir Al-Nas approach.

The paper presents a new bottom-up integrated approach combining hydrogeochemistry and social sciences for tackling groundwater issues in rural areas. Under the need to assess anthropogenic impacts due to combined agricultural and domestic pollution, the proposed Bir Al-Nas approach couples hydrogeology and isotope hydrogeochemistry with socio-economic assessment of the investigated zone. The main objectives of this approach are to: (i) foster public participation of local farmers; (ii) retrieve information on local issues and agricultural/domestic practices, (iii) raise awareness on groundwater vulnerability, and (iv) make the best use of the information obtained by using isotope tracers, as the most powerful tools for the identification of groundwater fingerprint, recharge and pollution origin.