Groundwater contamination analysis using Fuzzy Water Quality index (FWQI): Yazd province, Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Faculty of Earth Science, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Fuzzy Water Quality Index (FWQI) was applied in order to assess the degree of drinking water resources in Yazd province, Iran. This
study has also offered the creation of a new fuzzy water quality index (FWQI) to evaluate this tool’s applicability. 12 chemical
parameters including toxic and non-toxic heavy metals measured in 71 groundwater samples collected from drinking water resources
in rural areas were used. In FWQI, input data are categorized into three linguistic terms (“Desirable” or “Low”, “Acceptable” or
“Medium” and “Not-acceptable” or “High”) based on water quality standards for drinking water, Whereas the output data are
categorized into five classes (“Poor”, “Fair”, “Medium”, “Good” and “Excellent”) based on water quality index (WQI). The results
show that 8 groundwater samples were classified in the “Excellent” class with a certainty level of 5.33-76.67%, 41 samples in the
“Good” group with a certainty level of 8.5-96.5%, 8 samples were in the “Medium” category with a certainty level of 14-93.5%, 1
sample in the “Fair” level with a certainty level of 36.5%, and 13 samples were classified in the “Poor” class with a certainty level of
54.8-81.5% for potable purposes. The proposed Index can be a useful tool to be used in decision-making and environmental.

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History

  • Receive Date: 04 October 2012
  • Revise Date: 29 October 2013
  • Accept Date: 29 May 2013

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