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Water Quality Assessment and Hydrochemical Characteristics of Shallow Groundwater in Eastern Chancheng District, Foshan, China
Author(s) -
Huang Guanxing,
Chen Zongyu,
Sun Jichao
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143013x13596524516185
Subject(s) - groundwater , environmental science , principal component analysis , water quality , hydrology (agriculture) , sediment , carbonate , environmental engineering , environmental chemistry , geology , chemistry , mathematics , statistics , ecology , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , biology
Groundwater quality is the critical factor that affects human health and the quality of industrial products in Foshan City, South China. Multivariate statistical techniques, including hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), were applied to evaluate and interpret the complex groundwater quality in eastern Chancheng district, Foshan City. During the dry and wet seasons, 60% and 11% of the total groundwater samples (respectively) are suitable for drinking purposes; other samples can be used for drinking after being treated for pH, Fe, Mn, Al, NH 4 , and NO 3 . Similarly, during the dry and wet seasons, 75% and 33% of the total groundwater samples (respectively) are suitable for industrial purposes; other samples can be used for industrial purposes after being treated for NH 4 and NO 3 . Five principal components are extracted from PCA and used to explain 81.78% of the variance in groundwater. The indicators to groundwater quality assessment are EC, Na, Cl, Fe, Mn, NH 4 , pH, Eh, PO 4 , HCO 3 , and K from PCA. HCA reveals that groundwater samples in the study area can be classified into three groups: one reflecting the interaction of groundwater and sediment medium along with the role of cation exchange; another reflecting the role of anion exchange between phosphate and carbonate; and the final reflecting the reducing environment.