Spatial Distribution of Groundwater Quality Parameters in Al-Najaf City Using GIS and Geostatistics Techniques

Abstract

Abstract The scarcity of water resources in arid areas, as well as the impact of agricultural and human activities on groundwater quantity and quality, need a greater emphasis on these resource quality evaluations. In this study, the groundwater quality in the governorate of Al-Najaf was investigated using geostatistical methods based on the kriging interpolation approach to interpolate values in regions where real data was not available, also groundwater samples were evaluated based on a variety of qualitative parameters. Linear Gaussian, exponential, stable, and quadratic were the semivariogram models the study examined, and archGIS software was extensively utilized to map the investigated data. The study concluded that the groundwater in this area is unsuitable neither for drinking purposes nor in most of the industries according to the Iraqi specifications. Wilcox and United States Salinity Laboratory (USSL) diagrams were used to analyse the accessible water wells in the area. The diagrams depicted that 95.8 percent of the available well water in the research region is unsuitable for irrigation due to the extremely high salinity and continued application of such water may result in the development of salt soils. Spatial examination of groundwater revealed serious problems with almost all groundwater parameters in terms of water appropriateness for drinking, irrigation, and other purposes.