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Analysis of institutional authors

Garcés-León, DanielCorresponding Author

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October 31, 2025
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Risk Assessment of Groundwater Contamination in the Gala, Tenguel, and Siete River Basins, Ponce Enriquez Mining Area-Ecuador

Publicated to: Sustainability. 15 (1): 403- - 2023-01-01 15(1), DOI: 10.3390/su15010403

Authors:

Campoverde-Munoz, Paulo; Aguilar-Salas, Luis; Romero-Crespo, Paola; Valverde-Armas, Priscila E; Villamar-Marazita, Karla; Jimenez-Oyola, Samantha; Garces-Leon, Daniel
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Affiliations

Fac Engn Earth Sci, Escuela Super Politecn Litoral ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo Km 30-5 Via Perimetral, Guayaquil, Ecuador - Author

Abstract

Groundwater is a strategic resource, which is experiencing a growing threat of contamination worldwide. This study aimed to assess the vulnerability of the groundwaters in the basins of the rivers Gala, Tenguel, and Siete in the Ponce Enriquez mining area, considering as a hypothesis that anthropogenic activities (mainly mining and agricultural) conducted in the area generate a high risk of contamination. Vulnerability to contamination was quantified using the DRASTIC and GOD methods. In addition, the risk of contamination (Rc) was calculated considering the vulnerability index (I-V) and the danger index (I-P). Geographic information system (GIS) environment was used for the spatial analysis and the generation of vulnerability maps. The DRASTIC method showed that the negligible-to-low vulnerability category was predominant (50.7% of the area), followed by moderate vulnerability (25.6%), and high-to-extreme vulnerability (23.7%). Regarding the GOD method, the low and medium vulnerability categories were predominant in 41.4% and 27.5% of the area, respectively. Both methods agree that the center area, where the mining activities are located, has a vulnerability ranging from negligible to moderate. The I-P was low in the eastern zone (58.7 km(2)) and ranged from moderate (426.2 km(2)) to high in the central and western zones (371.1 km(2)), where mining activities predominate. The R-C revealed that 20% of the study area corresponded to a high contamination index; from which, 87% comes from agricultural activities, 9% from mining activities, and 4% due to shrimp farms and urban areas. This is the first study that evaluates the vulnerability to the contamination of groundwater in a mining area of Ecuador. The results of this research can serve as a baseline for future research, since the methodology used provides information on the priority areas for the protection of aquifers, considering the current land use in the study area.
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Keywords

Anthropogenic pollutionAquiferDrastic methodDrastic modelGod methodGroundwater vulnerabilityIndexPollutionPosh methodVulnerability

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Sustainability due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category .

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.22, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-12-20, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 5
  • Scopus: 9
  • Open Alex: 7
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-12-20:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 52.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 58 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 8.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 9 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Ecuador.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (GARCES LEON, DANIEL OMAR).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GARCES LEON, DANIEL OMAR.

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