Spatial analysis of groundwater quality for drinking use on Zaveh plain with Geographic Information System and Analytical Hierarchy Process combination

Increasing in human requirements has led to increase groundwater pumping and consequently decrease groundwater-table and discharge aquifers, that nowadays its results including an increase in water exploration costs, subsiding the soil and decreased water quality have became an worldwide problem. in the direction of confronting with water quality crisis, in this study appropriate regions for drinking water pumping in the aquifer of Zaveh plain, located in Khorasan Razavi Province, were determined. To reach this purpose, according to Schuler classification, parameters including pH, So4, TH, TDS, Mg, Ca and Cl were classified using GIS. Then the best places for drinking water extraction in the plain were determined using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in combination with Fussy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). The results of both process were similar and close. Supplied model was compared with drinking water wells in the aquifer. The results showed that about 25% of northern and central area in the aquifer has the highest groundwater quality. Moving towards western areas in the aquifer, the quality of groundwater decreased so that about 15% of western areas are included in low quality conditions.