Quality assesment of groundwaters using principal component analysis in Mianpur area, Hyderabad, India
Principal component analysis (PCA) of chemical variables of groundwater is used to interpret the relationship between the specific processes that control the quality of water. Groundwater samples were collected from Mianpur urban area, Hyderabad, and analysed for trace elements chemistry. The PCA separates the chemical variables into six principal components by HCO3, Cl, NO3, Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Ti and Zn. The principal component-I shows the significance on cadmium. The principal component-II shows the significance on calcium, chromium and iron. Tin, chromium, copper, manganese and lead show the significance on PC-III, PC-IV, PC-V and PC-VI, which are ignored as these show very less significance on the elements. These three principal components are identified with the processes of salinity, alkalinity and pollution, which are considered as lithologically and non-lithologicalry controlled factors. Identification of the zones helps to take appropriate management measures to improve quality of groundwater for sustainable development of the area.