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A hydrochemical and geological investigation on the Mambakkam mini watershed, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu

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Abstract

The hydrochemical characterization of groundwater is important to bring out its nature and usefulness. The main objective of this paper was to discuss the major ion chemistry of groundwater in the Mambakkam mini watershed. Besides its semi-arid nature, rapid socioeconomic development encourages a greater demand for water, which leads to uncontrolled groundwater development. The groundwater of the study area is characterized by the dominance of alkaline earth (Ca2+, Mg2+) and strong acids (Cl−, SO −4 ) over alkalies (Na+, K+) and weak acids (HCO −3 , CO −3 ) during both post-monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons of the year 2010, based on the hydrochemical facies. These have been probably derived from natural chemical weathering of rock minerals, ion exchange and anthropogenic activities of the fertilizer source. The classification based on the total hardness reveals that a majority of groundwater samples fall in the hard to very hard category during the pre-monsoon season. Based on the values of EC, SAR and RSC and the diagrams of USSL and Wilcox, most of the groundwater samples range from excellent to permissible for irrigation purposes, with a low alkalinity and high salinity hazard, except for a few samples in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was carried out under the Crossing Boundary Project and the authors are grateful to Saci WATERs, Hyderabad and the Wagningen University, Netherlands for providing the financial support. The authors thank Institute for Water Studies, government of Tamil Nadu for providing necessary data to carry out the present research.

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  1. Centre for Water Resources, Anna University, Chennai, India

    Packialakshmi Shanmugam & Ambujam N. K.

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  1. Packialakshmi Shanmugam
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Correspondence to Packialakshmi Shanmugam.

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Shanmugam, P., N. K., A. A hydrochemical and geological investigation on the Mambakkam mini watershed, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu. Environ Monit Assess 184, 3293–3306 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2189-1

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