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 Professor, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Shahid Chamran Ahvaz Ahvaz, Iran.

2 Ph.D. student in Hydrogeology, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

3 Professor, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Shahid Beheshti Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

4 Khuzestan Power and Water Authority, Ahvaz, Iran.

5 Employee of Kakeloyeh and Boyerahmad Regional Water Company, Yasoj, Iran.

Abstract

Groundwater is one of the most important water sources for drinking and agriculture in most regions of the world especially in arid and semiarid regions. But its quality has decreased mainly due to human activities such as production of domestic and industrial waste and also excessive use of fertilizers, and its has become a worldwide problem. Therefore, identification of source pollution for protection groundwater resource quality is important topics in recent decades that interest of many scientists and researchers. 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 showed that the nitrate concentration is varies between 3 and 103 mg/l. 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. The area of ​​​​Behbahan city has a moderate pollution index, which reflect the role of human activities in the groundwater resources of the studied area.

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References

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Hydrogeology
Volume 9, Issue 1
Publisher
June 2024
Pages 40-56

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