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An integrated approach to assess the quality of groundwater in a coastal aquifer of Andhra Pradesh, India

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Abstract

The Narava basin in Visakhapatnam district situated on the east coast is a productive agricultural area, and is also one of the fastest growing urban areas in India. The agricultural and urban-industrialization activities have a lot of impact on this coastal aquifer water quality. The hydrochemistry of the groundwater was analyzed in the basin area with reference to drinking and agricultural purposes. The area is underlain by Precambrian rocks like khondalites, charnockites and migmatites. The water samples were collected from shallow wells for the year 2008. Physical and chemical parameters of groundwater such as pH, total alkalinity (TA), electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3 −, Cl−, SO4 2−, NO3 −, F− were determined. The analytical results revealed that the most of the groundwater found to be in polluted category. Geographical information system (GIS) was utilized to generate different spatial distribution maps of various chemical constituents in the study area. The analytical data were used to compute certain parameters such as salinity hazard, percent sodium (Na%), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), Kelley’s ratio (KR) and corrosivity ratio (CR) to determine the quality of water for agricultural purposes. The abundance of the major ions in the basin area was found to be in the following sequence: Na+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+:Cl− > HCO3 − > SO4 2− > NO3 − > F−. According to Gibbs’ diagram most of the samples fall under rock dominance. As per Wilcox and USSL classification most of the groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation except few samples which are unsuitable due to the presence of high salinity and high sodium hazard. From the obtained data, it can be concluded that the water quality profile was good and useful for normal irrigation agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, 530 003, India

    P. Swarna Latha

  2. Geography Discipline, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, 110 068, India

    K. Nageswara Rao

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  1. P. Swarna Latha
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  2. K. Nageswara Rao
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Correspondence to P. Swarna Latha.

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Swarna Latha, P., Nageswara Rao, K. An integrated approach to assess the quality of groundwater in a coastal aquifer of Andhra Pradesh, India. Environ Earth Sci 66, 2143–2169 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1438-5

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