Analysis of Groundwater Quality in Al Zoroub and Al Buraimi, Oman Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techn

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Volume: 09 Issue: 08 | Aug 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

Analysis of Groundwater Quality in Al Zoroub and Al Buraimi, Oman Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technology

Student1, University of Buraimi, Oman. Student2, University of Buraimi, Oman. Assistant Professor3, University of Buraimi, Oman. Lecturer4, University of Buraimi, Oman. *** -

Abstract:

In Oman, groundwater is the most significant source of water. As a result, the Sultanate ofOman has placed a high value on water resources in terms of their sources, efficiency, and ways to rationalize consumption. The study deals with groundwater quality analysis in AlZorouband in Al Buraimi city. In this research, the groundwater samples were collected from20groundwatermonitoringwells.Thespatiotemporalmapsofvariousgroundwaterqualityparametersweregenerated to detect the changes in the groundwater quality from the year 2018 to 2021 in AlZorouband Al Buraimi city. The results found that the pH value varies in the range of 7.30 to 8.52, Total Hardness (TH) 126.17 to 250.98 (mg/lit), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) 195.87 to 460.17 (mg/lit) and Fluoride (F) 0.03 to 0.67 (mg/lit). The results showa slightincrease in the groundwaterqualityparametervaluesbutinpermissiblelimits.Theslightincreaseinthevaluesinsomeoftheareasmaybe due to urbanization and industrialization and over withdrawal of groundwater for agriculture, domestic water supply in the regions. Hence, the study suggests theauthorities should developa comprehensive water resources management strategies, industrial,urbandevelopmentsandintheagriculturalareas.

Key words: Groundwaterquality,landuse/landcover,waterlevel,spatiotemporal,urbanisationetc.

Introduction:

Water quality is important not only for human beings but also for animals and vegetation habitat. Groundwater is the main sourceof waterinOman(MRMEWR).Manyfactorssuchaslithology,soil,landuse, domesticandindustrywasteandhuman activities lead to contamination of the groundwater. Therefore, groundwater quality is a matter of serious concern, it is necessarytokeepphysicalandchemicalparameterswithinitspermissiblelimit.Theincreaseinbuilt-upareaandpopulation causing withdrawal of groundwater at various locations in Oman would lead to scarcity of water. Due to rapid increase in populationandurbanization,andassociatedanthropogenicactivities,intheseregions,theirgroundwaterresourcesarelikely tobepollutedbyvarioussources(Khattaketal.2012;Kataetal.2014;Lietal.2014;Mohammedetal.2017). Moreover,the useofpesticidesinagriculture,disposalofdomesticandindustrywasteanddissolvingofsoilorrockssaltsandminerals are linkedtocontaminationofaquifers(Al-Shidi,2014;Ammaretal.2021).Manyenvironmentalcauses,suchasweatheringand dissolvingofsoilorrockssaltsandminerals,aswellashumanactivity,havedirectandindirecteffectsongroundwaterquality resultinginpollution.Waterqualityparametersactasanindicatorofcontaminationofgroundwater.Thistechnologyprovides a platform to build spatial information into a well- organized database and thus facilitates systematic handling of data to generatehydro-chemicalinformationinauserdesiredformat.(Kantharajaetal.,2012).Inthisstudy,thegroundwaterquality data of the last 4 years was collected from 20 wells situated in Al Zoroub and in Al Buraimi. Here, Bicarbonate Alkalinity, Calcium (Ca++), Chloride (Cl), Magnesium (Mg++), Total Alkalinity, Total hardness (CaCO3), Total Dissolved solid, pH value, Fluoride(F),Sodium(Na)etcvaluesareanalysedinGeographicalInformationSystem(GIS)environment.

Study area:

ThisstudyiscarriedoutinAlZoroubandAlBuraimicity.Thetotal20groundwatermonitoringwellsaresituatedinareaas shown in Figure 1. Al-Zoroub is located near Khotom Ashiklla, south of Mahdah District, southeast of Al-Buraimi. The coordinatesoftheareaare395000Nand268000E(Figure1)

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Figure1:Locationofthegroundwatermonitoringwells

Methodology adopted:

Groundwater samples were collected from 20 wells situated in Al Zoroub and Al Buraimi city. These samples have physical andchemicalparameterlikeBicarbonateAlkalinity,Calcium (Ca++),Chloride(Cl-),Magnesium(Mg++),TotalAlkalinity,Total hardness(CaCO3),Total Dissolvedsolid(TDS),pHvalue,Fluoride(F),Sodium(Na)etc.In thefirststage,thestudyarea was finalised to collect the groundwater quality samples by selecting the 20 wells in the Al Zouroub and Al Buraimi area. The satellite image was captured from Google earth to locate the wells. Thereafter, image was georeferenced in the Arc GIS softwareandwellsdemarcatedonthesatellitedimage.Thevalueofallparameterswasattributedwithrespectivewells.Inthe laststage,the(IDW) methodofinterpolationisapplied togeneratethethematicmapinArc GISsoftware All thematicmaps andgraphsweregeneratedwhichshowsthetrendsofgroundwaterqualityparameterswitharialextentintheAlZorouband AlBuraimiregion(Figure2).

Selection of the study area (Al Zoroub and Al Buraimi)

Georeferencing of satellite image captured from Google earth pro

Collection of groundwater sample values

Generation of thematic map of all groundwater quality parameters at various arial extent

Results and Discussion:

Inverse Distance Weighted Method applied

Generation of graph from 2018 to 20121 showing temporal variation of groundwater quality parameters

Figure2:Methodologyadoptedforthestudy

The spatial and temporal map of the groundwater quality parameters has been generated for the pH value, Total Hardness (CaCO3), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Fluoride (F) from the year 2018 to 2021 for Al Zoroub and Al Buraimi area. Also, the graphoftemporalvariationof10groundwaterqualityparametersisgeneratedfrom2018to2021.ThepHvaluein2018 and 2019wasintherangeof7.32to8.32whileitisslightlyincreasedintheyear2021from7.94to8.51onpHscaleasshown in Figure3.

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Figure3.pHvalueoverthestudyareafrom2018to2021.

Thevalueoftotalhardnesswasintherangeof126to234mg/litintheyear2018butintheyear2021ithasincreasedupto 460mg/litathighersideasshowninFigure4.

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Figure4.Thevalueoftotalhardnessoverthestudyareafrom2018to2021. Thevalueoftotaldissolvedsolidswasintherangeof195to405mg/litintheyear2018butitisincreasedupto430to460 mg/litintheyear2021intheareaasshowninFigure5.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056 Volume: 09 Issue: 08 | Aug 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

Figure

5.Thevalueoftotaldissolvedoverthestudyareafrom2018to2021

The value of fluoride was in the range of 0.03 to 0.32 in the year 2018 and changed in the range of 0.06 to o.67 mg/lit as showninFigure6.

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Figure6.Thevalueoffluorideoverthestudyareafrom2018to2021.

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TheTable1showsthecomparisonoftheresultsfromtheyear2018to2021inthestudyarea.

Table1Thecomparisonoftheresultsfromtheyear2018to2021.

Sr.No. Water quality Parameters Values in year 2018 Values in year 2021

Lowest value (mg/lit)

Highest value (mg/lit)

Lowest value (mg/lit)

Desirable Limits per Oman Standard (OS 8/2012) (mg/lit)

Highest value (mg/lit)

1 pH (inscale) 7.30 8.32 7.94 8.52 6.5-8 (natural water) 6.5 – 8.5 (desalinated water)onpHscale

2 Total Hardness (TH) 126.17 223.66 236.59 250.98 500(mg/lit) (Maximum)

3 Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) 195.87 405.55 181.59 460.17 1000(mg/lit) (Maximum)

4 Fluoride(F) 0.03 0.32 0.06 0.67 1.5(mg/lit) (Maximum)

Groundwater quality of different parameters in all wells:

The values of Bicarbonate Alkainity, Calcium (Ca++), Chloride (Cl-), Maganesiume (Mg++), Total Alkalinity, Total hardness (CaCO3),TDS,pHvalue,Fluoride(F),Sodium(Na)inthewellsofcodeUB1,UB2,UB3,UB4,UB5,UB6,UB7,UB8,UB10,UB11, UB12,UB13,UB15,UB16,UB17,UB19,UB20,UB21,UB22,UB23aregiveninthegraph.

Conclusion:

Theoverallresultsshowsthatthevaluesareincreasingveryslowly.Thereasonmaybeoverwithdrawalofwaterfromground inthestudyarea.Also,thepopulation,andurbandevelopmenthasincreasedintheregion.Itmaybealsoconcludedthat,due tothedisposalofdomesticandindustrialwastemayincreasethevaluesofthesequalityparameters.HencethepHvalue,Total Hardness (CaCO3), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Fluoride (F) from the year 2018 to 2021 has increased. It may be inferred thatthestagehascomewheretheGovernmentofOmanmusttakedecisionsforfurtherimprovingthegroundwaterquality to ensurequalityundercontrolinfuture.

Recommendations for future:

4 1.Thevariousgroundwaterpollutionsourcesmustbeidentifiedalloverthearea.

5 2.Beforedisposalofindustrialwaste,qualityparametersmustbemonitored.

6 3.Groundwaterwithdrawalmustberestricteduptocertainlimit.

References:

Al-Shidi, Fahad Khalifa Rashid, "STUDY THE QUALITY OF GROUNDWATER OF AL-ZOROUP AREA IN MAHDAH STATE, THE SULTANATE OF OMAN" (2014). eses. 12. h>ps://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/all_theses/12

AmmarAbulibdeh,TalalAl-Awadhi,NouraAlNasiri,AliAl-Buloshi,MontasserAbdelghani(2021)Spatiotemporalmappingof groundwater salinity in Al-Batinah, Oman, Groundwater for Sustainable Development, Volume 12, 100551, ISSN 2352801X.

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KantharajaD.C.,T.K.Lakkundi,M.Basavanna,S.Manjappa(2012)Spatialanalysisoffluoride concentrationingroundwaters of Shivani watershed area, Karnataka state, South India, through geospatial information system, Environ Earth Sci, 65:67–76.DOI10.1007/s12665-011-1065-1

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Khattak MA, Ahmed N, Qazi MA, Izhar A, Ilyas S, Chaudhary MN, Khan MSA, Iqbal N, Waheed T (2012) Evaluation of ground water quality for irrigation and drinking purposes of the areas adjacent to Hudiara Industrial Drain, Lahore, Pakistan. PakJAgricSci49(4):549–556.

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