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Assessing groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh using GIS and multivariate statistical approaches

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Abstract

Sustainable groundwater quality is a key global concern and has become a major issue of disquiets in most parts of the world including Bangladesh. Hence, the assessment of groundwater quality is an important study to ensure its sustainability for various uses. In this study, a combination of multivariate statistics, geographical information system (GIS) and geochemical approaches was employed to evaluate the groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh. The results showed that the groundwater samples are mainly Ca–Mg–HCO3 type. Principal component analysis (PCA) results revealed that geogenic sources (rock weathering and cation exchange) followed by anthropogenic activities (domestic sewage and agro-chemicals) were the major factors governing the groundwater quality of the study area. Furthermore, the results of PCA are validated using the cluster analysis and correlation matrix analysis. Based on the groundwater quality index (GWQI), it is found that all the groundwater samples belong to excellent to good water quality domains for human consumption, although iron, fluoride and iodide contaminated to the groundwater, which do not pose any significant health hazard according to World Health Organization’s and Bangladesh’s guideline values. The results of irrigation water quality index including sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), permeability index and sodium percentage (Na %) suggested that most of the groundwater samples are good quality water for agricultural uses. The spatial distribution of the measured values of GWQI, SAR, Fe (iron), EC (electrical conductivity) and TH (total hardness) were spatially mapped using the GIS tool in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the authority of the Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh and the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, for all other forms of support for this study. The authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for improving the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    A. R. M. Towfiqul Islam, Shuanghe Shen & K. W. Maw

  2. Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, 5400, Bangladesh

    A. R. M. Towfiqul Islam

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, 1342, Bangladesh

    Muhammed Atikul Haque & Md. Bodrud-Doza

  4. Faculty of Environmental Management, Sustainable Energy Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand

    Md. Ahosan Habib

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Islam, A.R.M.T., Shen, S., Haque, M.A. et al. Assessing groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh using GIS and multivariate statistical approaches. Environ Dev Sustain 20, 1935–1959 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-017-9971-3

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