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Assessment of the impact of natural and anthropogenic activities on the groundwater chemistry in Baotou City (North China) using geochemical equilibrium and multivariate statistical techniques

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 27, pages 27651–27662 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The rapid development of urbanization and agriculture poses serious impacts on groundwater in arid and semi-arid areas, which typically have high groundwater depletion rates. In this study, chemical and isotopic analyses combined with different data interpretation methods (diagrams, bivariate analyses, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)) were used to identify the major factors controlling groundwater chemistry in an arid and semi-arid region of North China. Sixty-four groundwater samples (35 from unconfined aquifer, 29 from confined aquifer) were collected in Baotou City, North China, and 17 chemical variables were detected for each sample. The complex hydrochemical types in unconfined groundwater (e.g., HCO3-Ca·Mg, HCO3·Cl-Na·Mg, SO4-Na·Mg, and Cl·SO4-Na types) may be related to anthropogenic activities, while the main hydrochemical types in confined groundwater are HCO3-Ca·Mg, HCO3-Na·Mg, HCO3·Cl-Na·Ca, SO4·HCO3-Na·Mg, and Cl·SO4-Na types. Three component models for unconfined and confined groundwater were revealed using PCA, which explained approximately 79.69% and 80.68% of the data variance, respectively, providing a deeper insight into groundwater composition controlled by geochemistry and anthropogenic activities. Three clusters were yielded from HCA. The factors and identified clusters were verified with hydrochemical investigations. Among the natural factors, the main hydrochemical processes involve the dissolution of various minerals (halite, gypsum, feldspar, fluorite, mirabilite, biotite, dolomite, and calcite), cation exchange, evaporation, and mixing. The anthropogenic factors include domestic sewage intrusion and agricultural activities, which are most likely to lead to further declines in groundwater quality. These findings may be useful for improving groundwater resource management for sustainable development in arid and semi-arid areas.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41630639; 91025019; 41702302), Scientific and Technological Innovation Programs of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi (2019L0278) and Special/Youth Foundation of Taiyuan University of Technology (201901D211001).

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    He Su

  2. Exploration Surveying Institute of Baogang Group, Baotou, 014010, China

    Dongjiang Geng

  3. Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology Survey, China Geological Survey, Baoding, 071051, China

    Zhiyin Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Northern Taibai Str. 229, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Qibin Luo & Jiading Wang

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  1. He Su
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  2. Dongjiang Geng
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  3. Zhiyin Zhang
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  5. Jiading Wang
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Correspondence to Jiading Wang.

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Su, H., Geng, D., Zhang, Z. et al. Assessment of the impact of natural and anthropogenic activities on the groundwater chemistry in Baotou City (North China) using geochemical equilibrium and multivariate statistical techniques. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 27651–27662 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09117-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09117-0

Keywords

  • Groundwater chemistry
  • Natural factors
  • Anthropogenic activities
  • Saturation index
  • Multivariate statistical analysis
  • Baotou City