Multiparameter cartographic assessment of the hydrochemical groundwater of the Soummam valley (Kabylia, Algeria)

Abstract

A hydrochemical survey based on an analysis of groundwater data was undertaken in the alluvial aquifer of the lower valley of Soummam (LVS). The LVS reservoir is characterized by a hydrogeologically heterogeneous lithology consisting of gravel, sand, and silt (with occasionally significant levels of clay). Numerous contacts and faults affect the region. Data were derived from a hydrochemical analysis of water by titration and spectrophotometry using 60 groundwater samples. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was applied to these data to reduce their size and to understand the nature of ion associations. The results of this analysis were used for Kriging mapping to pinpoint hydrochemical features of the study area. Four factors explaining ∼92% of the data variability were identified: one related to sodium–potassium (Na‐K), chloride (Cl), and magnesium (Mg); one related to nitrates (NO3); one related to bicarbonate (HCO3); and one related to calcium (Ca) and sulfate (SO4). © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 33: 1357–1365, 2014

Hydrochemical and statistical characterization of groundwater in the Chemora area, Northeastern Algeria

“…Although PCA is an exploratory and descriptive method, the treatment aims to identify the main factors that control the chemistry of groundwater [36]. This multivariate statistical method has been widely applied to investigate the phenomena of the environment across the world [37][38][39] and in Algeria [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][40][41][42]. These tools multivariate statistics were used successfully to study the hydrogeochemical processes [16,[43][44][45][46].…”

The Issue of Groundwater Salinization in Coastal Areas of the Mediterranean Region: A Review

“…Another cluster of papers pertaining to this group tackled the saltwater intrusion delineation by using GIS weighting and rating methods, in which simple overlay maps methods are employed to estimate the vulnerability of a given coastal aquifer to salinization such as the GALDIT method (GALDIT is the acronym formed from the highlighted letters of the parameters used) [130][131][132][133][134][135], even with modifications to account for surfacegroundwater interactions [136], or by using GIS and water quality index interpolation methods to propose maps of vulnerability to salinization [137][138][139][140][141][142][143]. The main advantage of these methods is the relative easiness to handle high amount of data (i.e., spatially continuous precipitation and evapotranspiration data, land use maps, etc.…”