Zoning of groundwater contaminated by Nitrate using geostatistics method (case study: Bahabad plain, Yazd, Iran)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

2 GIS & RS Department, Islamic Azad University, Yazd Branch, Yazd, Iran

3 Faculty of Dentistry, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

4 Phd student of environmental health engineering, shahid sadoghi university of medical sciences, yazd, iranSchool of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

Abstract

Groundwater quality management is one of the most important issues in many arid and semi-arid regions, including Iran.
Nitrate (NO3
-) is one of the most common anions contaminating groundwater. This study aimed to range nitrate
concentrations in water resources in Bahabad plain in Yazd province. To evaluate the nitrate data in this descriptive study,
260 nitrate samples from 13 wells in Bahabad were assessed from 2003 to 2013. The two interpolation techniques of
kriging and inverse distance weighting (IDW) were used to obtain the spatial distribution of groundwater quality
parameters by means of Arcview GIS 10 software. The results of this study showed that the kriging method is more
accurate than IDW for groundwater quality mapping, based on the lower root mean square error (RMSE) of kriging.
Nitrate levels in samples from regional wells were lower than standard levels for Iran and the world. However, nitrate
contamination tended to increase from 2003 to 2013. Furthermore, the greatest nitrate contamination was found in the
southern part of Bahabad. In conclusion, kriging seems to be an appropriate method for estimating nitrate levels in
groundwater in Bahabad. We recommend action be taken in order to stop the increasing trend of groundwater nitrate
contamination in this area.

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