Chemical Characteristics and Quality Assessment of Groundwater of Exploited Aquifers in Beijiao Water Source of Yinchuan, China: A Case Study for Drinking, Irrigation, and Industrial Purposes

Abstract

This work is aimed at reviewing the chemical characteristics and evaluation of the quality of exploited groundwater in Beijiao water source of Yinchuan. A coupled model based on osculating value method (OVM) and entropy is proposed to determine the suitability for drinking. Besides, phreatic water and confined water are evaluated for irrigation purposes and industrial purposes, respectively. Piper diagram shows different hydrochemical characteristics between aquifers, which can be explained by the control mechanisms revealed by Gibbs diagram. Chloroalkaline indices and ions relationship indicate that reverse ion exchanges occur in different aquifers. Based on the osculating values, 96% of the phreatic water samples are fit for human consumption, and the confined water can provide quality drinking water. Most of the phreatic water samples have no sodium hazard but have magnesium hazard. All the confined water samples generate mild foaming reaction, and 93% of them are mildly corrosive for boilers. An assessment by OVM without entropy is calculated. Similar results to the coupled model demonstrate that pure OVM is also objective and valid. The simple algorithm turns multicriteria decision-making problems into an integrated index which is just as useful to water quality assessment.

Phreatic Water Quality Assessment and Associated Hydrogeochemical Processes in an Irrigated Region Along the Upper Yellow River, Northwestern China

“…The classification of water quality in terms of permeability index was given by Doneen [32] (Table 3). Therefore, the phreatic water in this region was suitable for irrigation, which is in line with other studies [33].…”

Element variability in lacustrine systems of Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica) and concentration evolution in surface waters

“…This ratio is used in the Gibbs diagram, a plot of Total Dissolved Solids vs. Na/(Na þ Ca) widely used in hydrochemical studies (e.g. Samanta et al, 2013;Wu et al, 2015) to determine the controlling mechanism of surface water quality; it relies on the assumption that Na has mainly a marine origin, whereas Ca primarily derives from natural erosion (Abollino et al, 2012). This ratio is generally very high if there is little leaching of Ca from rocks.…”

Groundwater Chemistry Regulated by Hydrochemical Processes and Geological Structures: A Case Study in Tongchuan, China

“…Na + or K + will decrease in water and both the above indices will be positive. In contrast, the reverse ion exchange will produce negative indices [37]. Figure 6f shows that most of the samples indicate negative values for both indices, suggesting reverse ion exchange in the system.…”

“…To some extent, major ions constituting the total dissolved solids (TDS) reflect the hydrogeochemical processes that take place in the aquifer system [37]. In Figure 5, as the TDS increase, all ion concentrations increase in varying degrees.…”

“…Figure 6e shows that cluster 1 and cluster 2 samples have a slope of −1, indicating cation exchange influences the groundwater chemistry of these samples, and cluster 3 has a slope of −0.6, indicating that cation exchange shows less influence on the water chemistry in cluster 3 than it does in the other clusters. Chloro alkaline indices (CAI) [37,49], calculated using Equations (3) and (4), were further used to identify the specific ion exchange between the groundwater and its host environment.…”