Journal
APPLIED WATER SCIENCE
Volume 7, Issue 6, Pages 3001-3013Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s13201-016-0400-9
Keywords
Multivariate analysis; Correlation coefficient matrix; PCA; Peninsular India
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Groundwater quality of Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India) has been assessed during different seasons of year 2012. Three physical (pH, EC, and TDS) and four chemical parameters (Ca2+, Cl-, TH, Mg2+ and SO42-) from 18 bore wells were assessed. The results showed that pH of majority of groundwater samples indicates a slightly basic condition (7.99(post-monsoon) and 8.35(pre-monsoon)). TH was slightly hard [322.11 mg/l(pre-monsoon), 299.37 mg/l(post-monsoon) but lies under World Health Organization (WHO) upper limit]. EC, TDS, Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations were under WHO permissible limit during post-monsoon (1503.42 lS/cm, 1009.37, 66.58 and 32.42 mg/l respectively) and pre-monsoon (1371.58 lS/cm, 946.84, 71.79 and 34.79 mg/l, respectively). EC shows a good correlation with SO42-(R-2 = 0.59pre-monsoon, 0.77post-monsoon) which indicates that SO(4)(2-)plays a major role in EC of ground water of bore wells. SO42- has also showed positive correlations with TDS (R-2 = 0.84(pre-monsoon), 0.95(post-monsoon)) and TH (R-2 = 0.70(pre-monsoon), 0.75(post-monsoon)). The principal component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA) was carried out; Factor1 explains 59.154 and 69.278 % of the total variance during pre-and post-monsoon, respectively, with a strong positive loading on Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-, TDS and a negative loading on pH. Factor2 accounts for 13.94 and 14.22 % of the total variance during pre-and postmonsoon, respectively, and was characterized by strong positive loading of only pH and poor/negative loading of EC, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-, TDS and TH during pre-and post-monsoon. We recommend routine monitoring and thorough treatment before consumption. Further, this study has demonstrated the effectiveness of PCA/FA to assess the hydrogeochemical processes governing the groundwater chemistry in the area.
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