Investigating the quality of groundwater resources with emphasis on the origin and determining the nitrate pollution index using hydrochemical methods and multivariate statistical techniques in the southern part of Behbahan aquifer in Khuzestan province.

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

1 universe of chamran ahvaz

2 University of Shahid Chamran Ahvaz

3 University of Shahid Beheshti Tehran

4 Khuzestan Power and Water Authority (KWPA),

5 Employee of Kakeloyeh and Boyerahmad Regional Water Company

10.22034/hydro.2023.56931.1295

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to evaluate nitrate pollution and identify the source and components affecting the quality of groundwater resource using of hydrochemical and statistical methods, including hydrochemical composite diagrams, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA).For this purpose 63 samples were collected from surface and groundwater resources of the region and analyzed using SPSS and XLSTAT statistical software. The results also showed that the most important sources of nitrate pollution are urban sewage and agricultural activities in the region. So that the most contamination of the samples was observed in the city of Behbahan and in the surrounding villages. The results of multivariate statistical techniques showed that the samples are in three separate groups and three main components were extracted using the PCA method, which is the most important component affecting the quality of water resources in the region related to human activities. The evaluation of different combination diagrams identified that the most important source of nitrates from urban sewage. Also, the wells depth showed that changes of nitrate at depths of less than 20 meters, are affected by urban sewage pollution, but at greater depths, the role of anthropogenic activities decreases. The evaluation of the nitrate pollution index has also shown that the highest pollution is associated with samples WB17, WB12, WB18, TM1 and R7 and is affected by anthropogenic activities. groundwater resources of the studied area.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Hydrogeology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 December 2023

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