Volume 17, No. 1, 2023
Received: 2022/06/08, Accepted: 2022/08/13
Authors:
RAHUL R; RAVIRAJ A; LALITHA R; NAGARAJAN M; BASKER M;
Abstract:
The groundwater quality is the direct relation to human health in developing countries. A study was conducted to analyse the Bhavani River basin drinking (WQI1) and irrigation (WQI2) groundwater quality were analyzed for standard methods. For analyzing Water Quality Index (WQI) fourteen parameters (TDS, pH, EC, TH, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, CO3-2, HCO3-, NO3-, Cl-, F-, SO42-) were used for two decades (1972-1990 & 2010-2019) with an areal extent of 4207 km2. The weightage arithmetic method was used to determine the WQI1 and all the parameters spatially represented using Arc GIS 10.3 software. For calculating WQI2 Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), Sodium Percentage (%Na), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Magnesium Hazard Ratio (MHR), Kelly�s Ratio (KR), Permeability Index (PI), and Potential Salinity (PI) are used. The hydrogeochemical characteristic of groundwater and statistical analysis developed from the Piper trilinear diagram, Gibbs plot, correlation matrix, and PCA Biplot. The dominance of groundwater parameters for both decades was ranked based on the cation and anion. For 2020 ranking was Na+> Mg2+> Ca+> K+=HCO3->Cl->SO42->CO3-2>F- and 1972 ranking was Mg2+> Ca+> Na+> K+=Cl->HCO3->CO3-2>SO42-. The statistical analysis of various groundwater quality parameters gives acceptable results for both decades. The GIS-based WQI for the study area found that poor groundwater quality was maximum (60%) in the 1972 decade compared to the 2010 decade (4%). Then poor &very poor groundwater quality areas need to be proper treatment strategies before usage of groundwater.
Keywords:
Groundwater, Hydro geochemistry, Remote Sensing, Statistical analysis, Water Quality Index.