The environment, as a term that encompasses everything that surrounds it, has long been recklessly disturbed by man. Environmental protection activities from anthropogenic impact are becoming an important segment of almost everything that man does. Scientific and professional community works daily on the development and application of methods and procedures that could increase the functionality and availability of these methods. The protection of all components of the environment has become one of the main goals, especially of groundwater as a very sensitive and at the same time an irreplaceable natural resource. Methods for assessing intrinsic vulnerability, hazards and risks of contamination, as well as the production of maps that are the final result of these methods, are newer research procedures that are becoming increasingly used for environmental purposes. The paper presents, the mentioned methods, as well as examples to which they have been successfully applied. The use of intrinsic vulnerability maps enables the identification of vulnerable as well as naturally better protected parts of researched areas, and thus enables effective spatial planning. Hazard source maps are an illustrative representation of the distribution of problematic facilities that could pose threat to the environment. By using contamination risk maps, it is possible to effectively identify key parts where special protection measures or remediation procedures should be applied in order to avoid further environmental degradation.