Evaluation of the Aghili aquifer hydrochemical status with emphasis on multivariable statistics method

Groundwater is one of most important sources of drinking agricultural and industrial water supply in the world and its importance is increasing due to population growth and climate change. therefore Improper management of water resources, lack of rainfall and recent droughts have adversely affected the quantity and quality of groundwater resources in most parts of Iran. Due to the importance of Aghili alluvial aquifer located in Khuzestan province in the agricultural sector and also the supply of drinking water to cities and villages in the study area, the groundwater quality status of this aquifer has been studied. In order to study the parameters affecting the groundwater quality of Aghili aquifer, the results of chemical analysis of 13 exploitation wells in March of the wet year (2014-2015) were used. In this study, in order to identify the factors affecting the groundwater quality of Aghili aquifer from saturation index, ion exchange diagrams, drawing methods and multivariate statistical methods (principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA)) Used. The predominant type of groundwater in this aquifer is sodium chloride. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that two factors with a total of 82.2% of the total changes (the first factor of 61.4% including the parameters Ca2 +, Mg2 +, Na +, K +, Cl- and SO42- and the second factor of 20.8 in Including pH and HCO3 parameters control the quality of Aghili aquifer water resources. Based on the results of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) of hydrochemical data, two clusters were observed. In general, the processes of dissolution, sedimentation, reverse ion exchange, wastewater in agricultural are among the factors affecting the groundwater quality of Aghili aquifer.