Research on the relation between hydro‐chemical and geological characteristics in karst area: Case study in Zhong Liang Mountain, Southwest China

Karst groundwater, which is one of most important drinking water sources, is vulnerable to be polluted as its closed hydraulic relation with surface water. Thus, it is very important to identify the groundwater source to control groundwater pollution. The Pearson correlation coefficient among major ions (Na + K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3−, SO42−, and Cl−) was employed to deduce the groundwater types in Zhong Liang Mountain, Southwest China. Then, the combined method of principal component analysis and cluster analysis were employed to identify the groundwater sources in a typical karst region of southwest China. The results shown that (1) the high positive correlation between cations and anions indicated the water–rock reaction of Ca‐HCO3, Ca‐SO4, (Na + K)‐Cl, and Mg‐SO4. (2) The major two principal components that would represent water–rock reaction of CaSO4 and Ca‐HCO3 would, respectively, explain 60.41% and 31.80% of groundwater information. (3) Based on the two principal components, 33 groundwater samples were clustered into eight groups through hierarchical clustering, each group has similar water–rock reaction. The findings would be employed to forecast the surge water, that was an important work for tunnel construction and operation. Practitioner Points The components of groundwater was highly correlated with water–rock reaction. The principal component analysis screens the types of groundwater. The cluster analysis identifies the groundwater sources. The principal component analysis identifies the water‐rock reaction, then cluster analysis identifies the groundwater sources.