Hydrochemical analysis to evaluate the seawater ingress in a small coral island of India

Abstract

The sustainable development of the limited groundwater resources in the tropical island requires a thorough understanding of detail hydrogeological regime including the hydrochemical behavior of groundwater. Detail analysis of chemical data of groundwater helps in assessing the different ground-water zone affected by formation as well as sea water. Groundwater and saline water interaction is better understood using groundwater major ion chemistry over an island aquifer. Multivariate methods to analyze the geochemical data are used to understand geochemical evolution of groundwater. The methods are successfully used to group the data to evaluate influence of various environs in the study area. Various classification methods such as piper, correlation method, and salinity hazard measurements are also employed to critical study of geochemical characteristics of groundwater to identify vulnerable parts of the aquifer. These approaches have been used to successfully evaluate the aquifer zones of a tiny island off the west coast of India. The most part of island is found to be safe for drinking, however some parts of island are identified that are affected by sea water ingress and dissolution of formation minerals. The analysis has successfully leaded to identification of that part of aquifer on the island which needs immediate attention for restoration and avoids further deterioration. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.