Suitable Geostatistical analysis using GIS for mapping groundwater quality: Case study in the Mansa District of Punjab, India

Abstract

Water quality assessment is important to delineate different water management zones for precisea plannedapplication of the input use of geostatistical approaches for water quality mapping iswell known but at the sametime selection of appropriate technique for mapping a particularparameter is equally important to achieve accurate results.In this context the present study was under taken to select suitable geostatistical approach formapping differentwater quality parameters and Georeferenced ground water samples were collected and analysed for different qualityparameters i.e. pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Carbonate and Bicarbonate (CO32-, HCO3-), Chloride (Cl-), Calcium + Magnesium (Ca2++Mg2+) (Total Hardness), Sodium (Na+), ResidualSodium Carbonate (RSC), Potassium (K+) and SAR.Different geostatistical approaches that are ordinary kriging, simple kriging, Radial BasisFunctions (RBF) and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) were compared on the basis of rootmean square error to select the best technique for a particular parameter.The spatial variability in pH value was mapped using ordinary kriging that ofCarbonate+Bicarbonate by simple kriging, for potassium using Inverse Distance Weighting(IDW) methods. And for rest of the parameters were mapped by Radial Basis Functions (spline)method.