Hydrogeochemical characteristics and water quality of Aji-Chay river, eastern catchment of Lake Urmia, Iran
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Ó Indian Academy of Sciences (0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789( ).,-volV)
Hydrogeochemical characteristics and water quality of Aji-Chay river, eastern catchment of Lake Urmia, Iran MORTEZA SAFARI* , ARDESHIR HEZARKHANI and SEYYED REZA MASHHADI Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran. *Corresponding author. e-mail: [email protected] MS received 16 April 2019; revised 22 June 2020; accepted 7 July 2020
The Aji-Chay river is the most important river discharging into endangered Lake Urmia in NW of Iran. The present study investigates the hydrogeochemical characteristics and origin of dissolved ions in the Aji-Chay river and some of its tributaries passing through Tabriz plain which is located at the east side of Lake Urmia. For this purpose, 317 water samples were collected during 9 years (2005–2014) from four stations and clustered to nine groups using K-means algorithm. Major cations and anions were considered to distinguish the hydrogeochemical evolution of water. The Piper, Langelier–Ludwig and StiA diagrams classiBed water samples into predominant Na–Cl endmember and Ca–HCO3 only in the upstream zone. With respect to Gibbs diagrams, mineral saturation indices and geology of the area, water chemistry of the Aji-Chay river reCects that water–rock chemical interactions including dissolution/precipitation of carbonate and sulfate minerals known as dedolomitization and dissolution of evaporitic salts along the Cow path are the dominant factors controlling the water chemistry; furthermore, evaporation, silicate weathering, and ion exchange reactions change the chemistry of water to some extent. Overall, water quality is evaluated as poor. Furthermore, intense halite dissolution increases Na concentration in water which in turn reduces its suitability for irrigation purposes. Keywords. Hydrogeochemical processes; water–rock interactions; surface water; K-means clustering; Lake Urmia; Aji-Chay river.
1. Introduction Water resources are increasingly gaining significance for industrial development and socio-economic sustainability worldwide, especially in rural areas where the population depends on untreated water resources for irrigation, livestock, farming and daily consumption (UNICEF and WHO 2004; Moe and Rheingans 2006; Reddy and Behera 2006). The quality of consumed water displays direct and indirect eAects on human health (Srinivasan and Reddy 2009; Keshavarzi et al.
2012; Zia et al. 2017). As population grows, poor quality water inevitably becomes the only available water resource in semi-arid and arid regions of the world where suitable water resources are scarce; thus, reliable water quality prediction and monitoring is of paramount importance for such cases (Gleick 2003; Rijsberman 2006). Assessing water quality requires a comprehensive understanding of various physico-chemical controlling factors along the water Cow path from upstream to downstream. Water quality depends on a variety of naturally occurring hydrochemica
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