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Identification of hydro-chemical processes in Western Kabul Plain aquifer (Afghanistan) using statistical methods and self-organizing map

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Abstract

Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for Kabul city residents, and it is also widely utilized for industrial and agricultural purposes. Identification of the major hydrogeochemical processes is significantly important for sustainable groundwater management in Western Kabul Plain (WKP) aquifer. In this research, the physicochemical results and isotopic ratios of water-stable isotopes of 13 groundwater and river water samples from the WKP were collected in April 2021 and employed to assess the hydrogeochemical processes using multivariate statistics and self-organizing map (SOM). The results of this study indicated that Ca–(Mg–Na)–HCO3 is the dominant type of hydro-chemical facies in the WKP aquifer. The findings revealed that all water samples originated from modern meteoric precipitation and the aquifer is mainly recharged from Kabul and Paghman rivers. The sampling locations were divided into three clusters based on Q-mode hierarchical cluster analysis and SOM models. The factor analysis and SOM models indicated that groundwater chemistry in the WKP aquifer is primarily controlled by the dissolution of calcite, dolomite, gypsum, halite, weathering of silicates, and ion exchange. The factor analysis and SOM models showed that NO3̄ concentrations principally originated from anthropogenic activities. The findings of this research may contribute to sustainable groundwater resource management in Kabul city.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this research are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The author express sincere thanks to Kabul Polytechnic University and Green Tech Company for providing in situ measurement equipment. The authors are also great to six anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and useful suggestions, which help to improve the manuscript.

Funding

This study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Minerals and Groundwater Resources, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin Ave, Tehran, Iran

    Abdulhalim Zaryab, Hamid Reza Nassery & Farshad Alijani

  2. Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Faculty of Geology and Mines, Kabul Polytechnic University, KPU Campus, 5th District, Kabul, Afghanistan

    Abdulhalim Zaryab

  3. Department Catchment Hydrology, Helmholtz-Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Kay Knoeller

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  1. Abdulhalim Zaryab
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  2. Hamid Reza Nassery
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Contributions

Abdulhalim Zaryab: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Software, Resources, Data curation, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. Hamid Reza Nassery: Formal analysis, methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing—review and editing. Farshad Alijani: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Software, Visualization, Writing—review and editing. Kay Knoeller: Methodology, Formal analysis, Validation, Supervision, Writing—review and editing. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hamid Reza Nassery.

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Zaryab, A., Nassery, H.R., Alijani, F. et al. Identification of hydro-chemical processes in Western Kabul Plain aquifer (Afghanistan) using statistical methods and self-organizing map. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 9, 198 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-023-00980-6

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