AUTHOR=Alshehri Fahad , Abdelrahman Kamal 

TITLE=Integrated approach for the investigation of groundwater quality using hydrochemical and geostatistical analyses in Wadi Fatimah, western Saudi Arabia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2023.1166153

DOI=10.3389/feart.2023.1166153

ISSN=2296-6463

ABSTRACT=The largest NE-SW trending low topographic zone in the western Arabian Shield is Wadi Fatimah. It is bordered on the NW side by the Fatimah Formation's faulted and folded volcano-sedimentary succession and on the SE side by the Jeddah Group's metamorphic rocks. Along both sides and upstream of Wadi Fatimah, there are also some large gabbros, granites, and foliated amphibolites. Both the underlying broken Precambrian bedrock and the shallow Quaternary alluvial layers contain Wadi Fatimah's groundwater. Eleven water quality parameters, including pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), Ca2+, HCO− 3, NO− 3, F-, Cl−, K+, Mg2+, SO2− 4, and Na+, were utilized to evaluate the quality of the water and produce a quality index (WQI). These parameters were measured at 100 different chosen locations. The spatial distribution map revealed that all parameters are high in the southern part except K+. Using the correlation matrix, there is a high positive correlation among TDS, Cl−, Mg2+, and Ca2+ in addition to a high correlation among TDS with Cl− and Na+. From PCA analysis, PCA1, PCA2, and PCA3 represent about 52%, 12%, and 10 % of all components along the study area. PCA1 has low variance than PCA2 and PCA3. The majority of the Southern region's sites went from having extremely poor to poor water classifications as well as poor to unsuitable water. However, the center part possesses exceptionally high-quality groundwater. According to the results from the current study's water quality index, the presence of nitrate and fluoride in the groundwater samples was primarily responsible for their high WQI values. The statistics showed that a higher percentage of the population had poor drinking water due to direct pollutant release, agricultural effects, and excessive groundwater resource use. The study offers a groundwater quality modeling technique that is both affordable and replicable in other areas with comparable hydrological and geophysical conditions.