peer reviewed ; Five different methods for assessing intrinsic aquifer vulnerability were tested in a case study and their results compared. The test area was a slightly karstified district in the Condroz region of Belgium. The basin covers about 65 km(2) and the karst aquifer provides a water-supply of about 28,000 m(3)d(-1). The methods tested were: EPIK (Doerfliger et al. 1999), DRASTIC (Aller et al.1987), 'German method' (von Hoyer and Sofner 1998), GOD (Foster 1987) and ISIS (Civita and De Regibus 1995). The results are compared and critically examined. From the analysis, it seems that reducing the number of parameters is unsatisfactory, due to the variety of geological conditions. The various methods produce very different results at any given site. As only physically-based methods can be checked for their reliability, it is clear that future vulnerability mapping techniques must incorporate such methods.