Comparative assessment of groundwater quality indices of Kannur District, Kerala, India using multivariate statistical approaches and GIS

The aim of the study was to determine the groundwater characteristics of rural and industrial zones in the Kannur region. In 2011, 25 groundwater data were collected from the centre for water resource development management (CWRDM), and in 2019, 25 groundwater samples from rural and near-industrial areas were collected and analysed for major anions (HCO 3 -, CO 3 2− , Cl − , NO 3 - and SO 4 2− ), and cations (TH, Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Na + , K + and Fe 2+ ) using APHA standards. To better understand the link between water quality parameters, multivariate statistical analysis approaches such as principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), correlation matrix analysis (CMA), and Pearson correlation bivariate one-tailed analysis (PCBOTA) were used to analyse the inter-relationship of data. The Inverse Distance Weighed (IDW) method was used to generate the spatial distribution of the groundwater quality index (GWQI). In 2011, the water quality index (WQI) value of groundwater samples was excellent at 24.42% and good at 54.14%, which were used for drinking purposes and moderate at 17.22% and poor at 4.22% for irrigation purposes in this study area. In 2019, excellent 21.62%, good 51.56% were used for drinking purpose, and moderate at 18.14%, and poor at 8.68% for irrigation purposes. By comparing the data with BIS and WHO standards, it is clear that groundwater in Kannur district is of good quality. In groundwater samples, the PCA eigen values were reported in 2011 (84.7%) and 2019 (73.4%) for statistical approaches. This study uses HCA and PCBOTA to analyse the elements, resulting in a better understanding of groundwater quality development. GIS based WQI maps were obtained and utilised to gain a better knowledge of the study area’s past and present water quality status. We observed that the quality of groundwater in the study region’s north-western portion is insufficient for drinking water.