Assessment of groundwater quality index for drinking purpose in the Durg district, Chhattisgarh using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques

Abstract

Present study is carried out to evaluate and characterize groundwater quality using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Techniques. In order to ascertain the groundwater quality a detailed survey was carried-out and a total 88 numbers of groundwater samples were collected from different locations of the Durg district. Various physicochemical parameters of collected groundwater samples were analyzed for the periods of 5-years from 2007 to 2011 during premonsoon period. Six criteria viz. pH, calcium (Ca++), magnesium (Mg++), chloride (Cl–), nitrate (NO– 3) and fluoride (F–) were used for the determination of groundwater quality index. The analytical hierarchical process (AHP) used to determine the weight of various parameters and their classes for identifying the groundwater quality index. Present study is helpful for long-term planning and management of groundwater resources of the study area.