Monitoring and Evaluation of Water Quality in Underground Aquifers Using (GIS) and (IWQI): Western Karbala’a as a Case Study

Abstract

Abstract: This study aims to provide an assessment of the current state of groundwater quality and to provide a combination of water quality criteria that may be utilized to develop the irrigation water quality index (IWQI), a suitable technique for classifying irrigation water. Seven wells’ worth of water were collected in the region under evaluation, and their physical and chemical characteristics, such as cation and anion concentrations, were examined. An interpolation method called “Inverse Distance Weighted, IDW” was employed in a geographic information system (GIS) to analyze the data obtained. The water may be labelled as “severe restriction, SR” because the projected values of the irrigation water quality index (IWQI) were more than zero but less than 40. Throughout the six-year period (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022), water samples from seven wells in the study area have been analyzed for their major and minor components. The finding shows that the irrigation water quality indexes (IWQIs) for 2017 and 2018 had measured values above zero but below 55, whereas IWQIs for the other years had calculated values below 40. Therefore, the water can be identified as “High Restriction, HR,” in the early years and as “severe restriction, SR,” in the latter years. As a consequence, this water cannot be utilized for irrigation, and it is abundantly evident that there will be a shortfall in the value of IWQI for a number of years in a row.