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Investigating hydrochemistry of groundwater in Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain using multivariate chemometric approaches

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Abstract

Groundwater hydrochemistry of an urban industrial region in Indo-Gangetic plains of north India was investigated. Groundwater samples were collected both from the industrial and non-industrial areas of Kanpur. The hydrochemical data were analyzed using various water quality indices and nonparametric statistical methods. Principal components analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the factors responsible for groundwater contamination. Ensemble learning-based decision treeboost (DTB) models were constructed to develop discriminating and regression functions to differentiate the groundwater hydrochemistry of the three different areas, to identify the responsible factors, and to predict the groundwater quality using selected measured variables. The results indicated non-normal distribution and wide variability of water quality variables in all the study areas, suggesting for nonhomogenous distribution of sources in the region. PCA results showed contaminants of industrial origin dominating in the region. DBT classification model identified pH, redox potential, total-Cr, and λ 254 as the discriminating variables in water quality of the three areas with the average accuracy of 99.51 % in complete data. The regression model predicted the groundwater chemical oxygen demand values exhibiting high correlation with measured values (0.962 in training; 0.918 in test) and the respective low root mean-squared error of 2.24 and 2.01 in training and test arrays. The statistical and chemometric approaches used here suggest that groundwater hydrochemistry differs in the three areas and is dominated by different variables. The proposed methods can be used as effective tools in groundwater management.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow (India) for his keen interest in this work and providing all the necessary facilities.

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Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Anusandhan Bhawan, Rafi marg, New Delhi, 110 001, India

    Kunwar P. Singh, Shikha Gupta & Premanjali Rai

  2. Environmental Chemistry Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Post Box 80, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Lucknow, 226 001, India

    Kunwar P. Singh, Shikha Gupta & Premanjali Rai

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  1. Kunwar P. Singh
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  2. Shikha Gupta
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Correspondence to Kunwar P. Singh.

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Singh, K.P., Gupta, S. & Rai, P. Investigating hydrochemistry of groundwater in Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain using multivariate chemometric approaches. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 6001–6015 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2517-4

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