Assessment of groundwater quality using DEA and AHP: a case study in the Sereflikochisar region in Turkey

Abstract

This study investigated the spatial distribution of groundwater quality in Sereflikochisar Basin, in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey using different hydrochemical, statistical, and geostatistical methods. A total of 51 groundwater samples were collected from the observation wells in the study area to evaluate the characteristics of the groundwater quality. As a relatively simple and practical method, a groundwater quality index (GWQI) was developed to evaluate the overall groundwater quality. In this process, complex decision-making techniques such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) were used. Based on these models, two new indices (A-GWQI and D-GWQI) were proposed. According to the D-GWQI score (from 0.6 to 1), water quality was classified in four categories as unsuitable (0.6–0.7), permissible (0.7–0.8), good (0.8–0.9), and excellent (0.9–1). The spatial distribution maps of the groundwater quality were created using the Kriging method. For each map, seven different semivariogram models were tested and the best-fitted model was chosen based on their root mean square standardized error. These maps showed that the areas with high groundwater quality were in the eastern and southern parts of the study area where the D-GWQI scores were greater than 0.8. Depending on the distance from the Salt Lake, the characteristics of groundwater changed from NaCl to NaHCO3 and CaHCO3 facies. This study shows how to determine the spatial distribution of the groundwater quality and identify the impact of salt lakes on the groundwater quality in inland aquifers. The findings of this study can be applied to ensure the quality of groundwater used for drinking and irrigation purposes in the study area.

Investigating the Impact of Anthropogenic and Natural Sources of Pollution on Quality of Water in Upper Indus Basin (UIB) by Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis

“…One of the most influential elements regarding environment concerns all over the world is the anthropogenic distribution, e.g., sewage discharge into the river, reclamation process of the land, and climate change due to atmospheric deposition effects [1]. In the recent years, much attention is paid by various researchers in assessing the quality of surface water because of its direct connection not only with human beings but also with other species [2]. e major factors affecting the quality of river water usually are morphology of the basin and regional atmosphere along with climate change, and both natural and anthropogenic effects are responsible for governing these effects [3].…”

Hydrochemistry and quality assessment of groundwater in the Ardabil area, Iran

“…During the past decade, various geochemical methods have been successfully used to assess groundwater quality in world and Iran (e.g., Pazand and Javanshir 2014;Barzegar et al 2016;Fijani et al 2016;Kavurmac and Ustun 2016). Additionally, numerous recent studies have focused on analyzing the natural concentrations of several ions and metals in groundwater, to isolate anthropogenic and natural sources that affect groundwater quality, and establish interactions that take place within the aquifer (e.g., Aghazadeh and Mogaddam 2010;Jacintha et al 2016;Ehya and Marbouti 2016;Sethy et al 2016).…”

A Compact Representation of Preferences in Multiple Criteria Optimization Problems

“…There has been a steady-state increase in its usage since its introduction, due to its ease of application. A large body of research concerning with AHP applications in different disciplines can be found in literature including, but not limited to, wastewater services [7], new product development [10], Internet finance [9], sustainable and renewable energy [24,25], water resources management [5,6], agriculture [26], health [8], nuclear power [27], climate change [28], and presidential elections [29].…”

“…On the one hand, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) proposed in [4] introduces relative priority levels and cardinal preferences. A broad range of recent AHP applications can be found in many different disciplines dealing with environmental problems [5][6][7], health [8], finance [9], and product development [10].…”