International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Spatial Distribution of Ground Water Quality in and around
Vyasarpadi, North Chennai by using GIS techniques
K. Ilayaraja*, and A. Ambica
Department of Civil Engineering
Bharath University, Selaiyur, Chennai-73
ABSTRACT
All living organisms are dependent upon pure oxygen, water, soil etc. in one form or
other to maintain metabolic processes that produce energy for growth and reproduction.
Groundwater is the most important natural resource required for drinking to many people around
the world, especially in rural areas. Due to the rapid increase in rapid urbanisation and industries
the air, water, soil and the nature are being polluted by dispose their wastes into water bodies and
contaminate them. The level of concentration of various phisco-chemical parameters determines
the quality of ground water. Therefore the study was undertaken with the aim to analysis the
ground water quality in the study area with the goal to analyse the physico-chemical character of
the water samples and to create the spatial distribution map of the analysed water samples by
calculating the water quality index. GIS is an effective tool to represent the spatial distribution. A
geodatabase and various thematic maps were created for the water quality representative
parameters such pH, Carbonates and Bi- carbonates, Dissolved oxygen, Electrical Conductivity,
Chlorides, Total Hardness and Alkalinity. The physico-chemical results were compared to the
standard guideline values as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for
drinking and public health in order to have an overview of the present groundwater quality.
Chlorides concentration in most of the wells located are within the maximum permissible limit
specified by BIS and WHO Standard.
Key words: Geographical Information System, Spatial analysis, Water Quality Index
1 Introduction
The worlds total water resources are estimated to be 1.37x10 8 Million ha-m. Of these,
about 97.61% is salt water in oceans and 2.39% is available as surface water and 0.29% as
ground water. It is the largest source of fresh water in the hydrologic cycle. Chemicals passing
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through several hydrological zones, reach the ground water system. The pore spaces in the
unsaturated zones are occupied by air and water. These adsorbed chemicals will be decomposed
by oxidation and microbial activity. The pore spaces are also unsaturated and as chemical
percolated through the zone and aerobic biological degradation.
Water is relatively more prone to pollution than air because it is more viscous having
lesser moment of inertial possessing closer molecular distance than air (Trivedi and Raj 1992).
Luciano Gomes. Estela P.Troiani. Jorge Nozaki (2009) have analyzed the environmental impact
on a stream in Maringa city, Parana state, Brazil and blamed the tanneries. Deterioration of the
quality of the stream water and the ground water is mainly due to discharge of tannery effluent in
the stream. The concentration of the TDS, TSS, Chlorides were very very high. Gultekin Tarcan
et al., (2009) found that effluent from the tanneries caused irreparable damage to the soil and as
well as water. Fertility of the soil was affected due to discharge from tanneries. E.Leghouchi.
E.Laib. M.Guerbet (2007) said that chrome tanning was in practice in the nearby tanneries
caused damage to the vegetation and so also the sediments & water.
Gurunatha Rao V.V.S, M. Thangarajan (1999) in their assessment through mass transport
modeling reported that the ground water pollution due to discharge of tannery effluents in Upper
Palar basin. They found that concentration of TDS, TSS and Chlorides were very high and which
is mainly due to tannery effluents. Karthikeyan and Meenakshi (1991) examined the Ground
water quality in and around the tannery units located in the southern side of Dindigul town. The
amount of total solids, hardness & chlorides were several times higher than the tolerable limits
for drinking and Industrial purposes. Vardaraj et.al (1994) worked on the toxic effect of tannery
effluent on the biochemical constituent in different issue of pillaglobosa. Manonamani et al.
(1991) The tannery effluent affect the water quality of irrigation canal by way of altering the
algae, fungi, bacteria and actinomycete population. Vullierment and carre (1982) studied the
effect of tannery effluent on the ground water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, BOD,
suspended and dissolved solids, sulphur, chromium and nitrogen. He found that chromium and
TSS concentration were very high and several times more than the tolerable limits for drinking
purposes. Roa et.al (1982) studied the activity pattern of the fish, water snail and other aquatic
fauna in the river and found that they are affected due to tannery effluents. The aim of ther study
is to analysis the gorund water quality in the study area. Therefore the objective of the study is to
analyse the physico-chemical character of the water samples and to create the spatial distribution
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
map of the analysed water samples by calculating the water quality index. Different themes
interpreted from topographical data on 1:50,000 scale were converted into raster format using
colour scanner. These raster maps were geometrically rectified using Ground Control Points
(GCP) and converted into vector format by on screen digitization method using Arc GIS
software. These vectorised themes were put into GIS environ using common projection
coordinates so as to obtain better results in overlay analysis. GIS is a computer based integrated
database management system in which large volumes of geo referenced spatial data derived from
variety of sources are efficiently stored, organized, manipulated, retrieved, analysed and
displayed according to the user defined specifications. Spatial analysis module in ArcGIS
(version 9.2) software has been used for the present study. Spatial analysis of drinking water
quality was carried out by interpolation of sampling points by the algorithmic method ‘Inverse
Distance Weighted’ (IDW). The locations of the sampling stations were imported into GIS
software as point layer. Each sample point was assigned by a number and stored in the point
attribute table. The attribute data file contains values of all physico-chemical parameters in
separate columns for each sampling station. The geodatabase was used to generate the spatial
distribution maps of the analyzed water quality parameters such pH, EC, Alkalinity, Hardness,
DO, Chlorides, Carbonates and Bicarbonates.
2. Materials and Methods
District maps, block maps, Survey of India topo sheets on 1:50,000 scale and soil atlas. In
order to identify and transform the information recorded, light table, enlargement reduction
process and various drawings and measuring instruments, computer with Arc GIS 9.1, software
have been used during the course of map preparation and final sptial maps generation. Bureau of
Indian standards for drinking water, the Central Public Health Environmental Engineering
Organization and WHO’s Standard Guidelines for Portable Water (Table 1). The generalized
flow chart adaopted for the present study is given in the figure 1.
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Table 1 WHO’s standards and Indian standards for physical and chemical parameters
Indian standards
S. NO
Parameter
WHO
Desirable
limit
1
pH
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Total hardness(mg/l)
Chlorides (mg/l)
Sulphate (mg/l)
TDS(mg/l)
Nitrate(mg/l)
Total alkaline(mg/l)
Sodium
Fluorides
Preferably<8.0
(between 6.5-8.5)
500 mg/l (as CaCO3)
250 mg/l
--1000 mg/l
----200 mg/l
1.5 mg/l
Permissible limits
6.5-8.5
No relaxation
300
250
200
500
45
200
-----
600
1000
400
1000
100
350
-----
GIS
FIELD
TEST
SAMPLE
LOCATION/GPS
SAMPLE
COLLECTION
INSITUpH,EC
GEO PROCESSING
LABORATORY TESTALKALINITY,HARDNES
S,
DO,CHLORIDES,CARBO
NATES AND
BICARBONATES
BASE MAP
ANALYSIS
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF
G.W QUALITY
Figure 1 Flow chart of methodology
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3. Study area
Chennai is a low-lying area and the land surface is almost flat. It is geographically
located at latitude of 13° 6' 40” N and Longitude of 80° 15' 53” E (Figure 2). The even
topography of the land throughout the district renders sub-divisions into natural regions rather
difficult. It rises slightly as the distance from the sea-shore increases but the average elevation of
the city is not more than 22' above mean seal-level, while most of the localities are just at sealevel and drainage in such areas remains a serious problem. A total of 15 gorund watersamples
are collected from Vyasarpadi, North Chennai. The depth of the wells, bore wells ranged from
approximately 30-60 feet in these stations and their locations were located by handheld GPS
(Table 2).
Table 2. The locarions of the samples with their latitude and longitude
S.NO
LATTITUDE(N)
LONGITUDE(E)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
13°06.720’
13°06.802’
13°06.864’
13°06.784’
13°06.894’
13°06.751’
13°06.664’
13°06.569’
13°06.665’
13°06.807’
13°06.845’
13°06.849’
13°06.714’
13°06.988’
13°06.737’
080°15.339’
080°15.391’
080°15.520’
080°15.728’
080°15.732’
080°15.589’
080°15.680’
080°15.387’
080°15.432’
080°15.408’
080°15.413’
080°15.367’
080°15.346’
080°15.336’
080°15.423’
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SOURCE
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
BORE WELL
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume1 Issue2 – May 2011
Figure 2 Base map of the study area with the sample locations
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4. Result and Discussion
Understanding the groundwater quality is important seeing that it is the main factor
determining its suitability for drinking use. Physical and chemical parameters including
statistical measures, such as minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviation, are reported in
Table 3. The following water quality parameters were selected and their respective maps were
prepared namely, pH, EC, Chloride, Total hardness, Dissolved oxygen, Carbonates,
Bicarbonates.
(i)
pH:
The results of the ground water sample analysed it is seen that pH in all the wells were
above the maximum permissible limit ie., between 9.0 and 11.0 specified by Bereau of Indian
Standard (BIS). The pH value in study area lies between 9.0 and 9.99. The sample locations
9,11,14&15 has pH varies between 9.2 - 9.38 as the lowest one. The sample locations 1,5,,7,8,12
&13 has observed pH as 9.79 - 9.99 as the max value. The average value is been distributed for
remaining samples as 9.2 - 9.78. The distribution of pH from 9.0 to 9.99 is spatially plotted in
study area using arc gis as a spatial map (Figure 3)
Table 3. Result of Analyzed parameters of the groundwater samples
SNO.
pH
EC
ALKALINITY
HARDNESS
DO
(mmhos/cm)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
9.9
9.3
9.3
9.5
9.8
9.7
9.8
9.9
9.8
9.8
9.3
9.8
9.9
9.8
9.6
980
978
981
980
980
997
986
982
983
979
995
990
986
981
980
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CHLORIDES
CARBONATES
BICARBONATES
18
15
18
19
12
17
15
20
30
14
20
18
18
12
16
17
35
9.5
8.5
23
48
7.5
12.5
27
26
20
7.5
32
20.5
37
(mg/l)
35
50
27.5
27.5
35
65
22.5
32.5
40
40
40
27.5
50
26.5
50
250
630
350
450
350
500
245
375
250
670
555
340
370
400
610
16
9.6
14
4
12
12
10.8
11.2
12.8
12
14
13.6
14.4
14.8
6.5
75.812
89.59
60.3
43
64.61
103.38
60.3
120.61
77.535
172.3
63.75
55.99
94.76
68.92
120
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Fig 3 Spatial Distribution of pH
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(ii)
Carbonates
The Carbonates value in study area lies between 12.00 - 19.99. The sample locations
5,9&14 has carbonates varying between 12.00 - 13.59 as the minimum value. The sample
locations 4,8&11 has observed carbonates as 10.9 -15.9 as the max value. The average value is
been distributed for remaining samples varying between 13.6 - 13.8. The distribution of
carbonates from 12.00 – 19.99 is spatially plotted in study area using arc gis as a contour
map(Figure 4)
(iii)
Bi-Carbonates
The Bi-carbonates value in study area lies between 7.50 – 47.99. The sample locations
2,3,4,7,8,&12 has bi-carbonates varies between 7.50 - 15.59 as the minimum value. The sample
locations 6 has observed bi-carbonates as 39.90 – 47.99 as the max value. The average value is
been distributed for remaining samples varying between 26 – 40. The distribution of
bi-
arbonates from 8 - 74 is spatially plotted in study area using arc gis as a contour map (Figure 5).
(iv)
Dissolved Oxyen
The DO value in study area lies between 4 - 14.9. The sample locations 4 has DO varies
between 4 - 5.9 as the minimum value. The sample locations 1,3,11,13&14 has observed DO as
13 - 14.9 as the max value. The average value is been distributed for remaining samples varying
from 6 - 12.9. The distribution of DO from 4 - 14.9 is spatially plotted in study area using arc
gis as a contour map (Figure 6).
(v)
Electrical conductivity
The EC value in study area lies between 979 - 996. The sample locations 1,3,4,5,913&15
has EC varies between 979 - 980 as the minimum value. The sample locations 6&10 rest has
observed EC as 985 - 996 as the max value. The average value is been distributed for samples
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981 – 992. The distribution of EC from 979 - 996 is spatially plotted in study area using arc gis
as a spatial map (Figure 7).
Figure 4 Spatial Distribution of Carbonates
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Figure 5 Spatial Distribution of Bicarbonates
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Figure 6 Spatial Distribution of Dissolved Oxygen
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Figure 7 Spatial Distribution of EC
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(vi)
Chlorides
The Chlorides value in study area lies between 36.75 - 172.29. The sample locations
3,4,7,11&12 has chlorides varying between 36.75 - 63.35 as the minimun value. The sample
locations 6&3 has observed chlorides 145.18 – 172.29 as the maximum value. The average value
is been distributed between the remaining samples as 63.86-145.17. The distribution of chlorides
from 53-88 is spatially plotted in study area using arc gis as a contour map (Figure 8)
(vii) Total Hardness
The Hardness value in study area lies between 245 - 699. The sample locations 1,7&9 has
Hardness as the lowest value varying between 245 - 335. The sample locations 10&15 has
observed hardness as the highest value varying between 608 – 699. The average value is been
distributed for remaining samples 336 – 607. The distribution of Hardness from 245 - 699 is
spatially plotted in study area using arc gis as a contour map (Figure 9).
(viii) Alkalinity
The Alkalinity value in study area lies between 6.65 – 54.99. The sample locations 6 has
alkalinity varies between 6.65 – 19.30 as the minimum value. The sample locations 13&15 has
observed alkalinity as 45.32 -54.99 as the max value. The average value is been distributed for
remaining samples between 16.31 – 45.31. The distribution of Alkalinity from 16-44 is spatially
plotted in study area using arc gis as a contour map (Figure 10).
5. Conclusion
From the results of the ground water sample analysed it is seen that pH in all the wells
were above the maximum permissible limit ie., between 9.0 and 11.0 specified by Bereau of
Indian Standard (BIS). Chlorides concentration in most of the wells located are within the
maximum permissible limit specified by BIS and WHO Standard. Total Hardness in the well
near the industries exceeds the limit in the entire well situated near the tannery. The range near
the tannery was found to be 450 mg/l to 700 mg/l. Dissolved oxygen in the obtained water
samples are within the permissible limits. Alkalinity obtained from water samples are
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comparatively high. Similarly, Electrical conductivty concentration was more in the wells near
the industries. Its concentration was well above the maximum permissible limit. The range of
concentration was 900 to 1000 mmhos/cm.
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Figure 8 Spatial Distribution of Chlorides
Figure 9 Spatial Distribution of Hardness
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Figure 10 Spatial Distribution of Alkalinity
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