Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the ground water quality and salinity issues in the fast developing coastal urban lands of two river basins of Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, South India. Design/methodology/approach In order to address the water quality of the basins, field sampling was conducted and the samples were analysed in the laboratory. A comparison with water quality standards was also made and the interpretations of the results were done using GIS and statistical tools. Findings The values of conductivity, chlorides and salinity show that the coastal areas of Neyyar and Karamana basins are severely affected by salinity intrusion in addition to the pollution problems. More than 90 per cent of the samples are with hardness lower than 100 mg/l. About 70 per cent of the study area is with calcium concentrations lower than 25 mg/l. The content of sulphate and magnesium in Poovar and Poonthura coastal stretches is found to be higher compared to other regions. Originality/value Since not much work has been published from the study area on these aspects, the hydrochemical characterization is a very important in deciphering the quality of ground water for its proper management. The water quality evaluation and salinity intrusion studies are very important for the future planning and development of this area.
<p>Understanding the route of precipitation through the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum is significant for partitioning evapo-transpiration (ET) into its components. The &#948;<sup>18</sup>O of water has been used in the present study to understand the eco-hydrological connectivity in the tropical humid Western Ghats, India. We conducted spatially distributed sampling of stream water, xylem, groundwater, root, and soil pore water. The results suggest that the vegetation mostly accessed water from the intermediate soil layer and not from the streams. Though the shallow roots exhibited enriched isotopic signatures due to the availability of evaporated soil water, the xylem water exhibited rather depleted signatures suggesting that the dominant uptake happened from the layers beneath the topsoil. While a significant Isotopic elevation effect (-0.09/100 m elevation) was observed in the stream water, the xylem water elevation effect was not significant. The major discontinuity of the Western Ghats, the Palghat Gap, exhibited the circulation of <sup>18</sup>O enriched water in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum due to the evaporative enrichment of source water and the subsequent abstraction by trees. The calculated leaf water enrichment at the evaporative site of the leaf (&#8710;Le) and the ET fluxes recorded in the weighing lysimeters as well pointed towards the isotopic enrichment in the Palghat Gap. Additionally, the lysimeter ET flux and the mixing model-based partitioning of ET show the transpiration component to be 88%.</p>
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