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Mapping human health risk by geostatistical method: a case study of mercury in drinking groundwater resource of the central ganga alluvial plain, northern India

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Abstract

Human health is “at risk” from exposure to sub-lethal elemental occurrences at a local and or regional scale. This is of global concern as good-quality drinking water is a basic need for our wellbeing. In the present study, the “probability kriging,” a geostatistical method that has been used to predict the risk magnitude of the areas where the probability of dissolved mercury concentration (dHg) is higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limit. The method was applied to geochemical data of dHg concentration in 100 drinking groundwater samples of Lucknow monitoring area (1222 km2) located within the Ganga Alluvial Plain, India. Threefold (high to extreme risk) and twofold (moderate risk) higher dHg concentration values than the WHO permissible limit were observed in all of the groundwater samples. The generated prediction map using the probability kriging method shows that the probability of exceedance of dHg is the highest in the northwestern part of the Lucknow monitoring area due to anthropogenic interferences. The hotspots with high to very high probability are potentially alarming in the urban sector where 32.4% of the total population is residing in 6.8% of the total area. Interpolation of local estimates results in an easily readable and communicable human health risk map. It may help to consider substantial remediation measures for managing drinking water resources of the Ganga Alluvial Plain, which is among the anthropogenic mercury emission–dominated regions of the world.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Indra Bir Singh, the University of Lucknow, for his encouragement and suggestions in the present study. We also appreciate the corporation and support provided by the editorial staff of “Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Special Issue: Geospatial Technology in Environmental Health Applications.” We would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and valuable comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Ashwani Raju

  2. Department of Geology, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, 313001, India

    Anjali Singh

  3. Department of Geology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, 226007, India

    Nupur Srivastava & Munendra Singh

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Sandeep Singh

  5. Central Muga Eri Research and Training Institute, Jorhat, 785700, India

    Dharmendra Kumar Jigyasu

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  1. Ashwani Raju
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  2. Anjali Singh
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  3. Nupur Srivastava
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  4. Sandeep Singh
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  5. Dharmendra Kumar Jigyasu
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  6. Munendra Singh
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Correspondence to Anjali Singh.

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Raju, A., Singh, A., Srivastava, N. et al. Mapping human health risk by geostatistical method: a case study of mercury in drinking groundwater resource of the central ganga alluvial plain, northern India. Environ Monit Assess 191 (Suppl 2), 298 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7427-y

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