Analysing water-borne diseases susceptibility in Kolkata Municipal Corporation using WQI and GIS based Kriging interpolation

Abstract

The varieties of water-borne disease are caused by pathogens transmitted and spread by different routes. The spread of such infection increases while the water quality affected by external sources. Changes in the quality of water can influence the dynamics of microbial pathogens which can also influence the prevalence and transmission dynamics of water-borne diseases. The present study highlighted on selected chemical parameters of ground water to signify the water quality index and mapping of water-borne diseases susceptibility areas in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, India. The main objective of present study was to demonstrate the significance of geographical information system based Geostatistical technique for identifying water-borne diseases susceptibility by taking different ground water parameters, water quality index and reported water-borne diseases into consideration. Using Kriging interpolation, the spatial map of water parameters, water quality index and reported disease cases were prepared and reclassified by putting risk rank to generate susceptibility map of water-borne diseases. The accuracy of the result was assessed through error estimation and spatial autocorrelation. The result from error estimation, it was found that the root mean square error between diseases susceptibility and selected chemical parameters, water quality index and reported water-borne diseases are 0.0847, 0.1182 and 0.0640 respectively which is always < 1. The correlation of diseases susceptibility with chemical parameters has resulted highly positive (r2 = 0.97) and with water quality index has also resulted positive (r2 = 0.82). The study result also suggests the applicability of geographical information system in other types of diseases susceptibility analysis by setting proper objectives and selecting suitable study criteria with spatial justification.