Seasonal variability, index modeling and spatiotemporal profiling of groundwater usability in semi-urban region of western Uttar Pradesh, India

The probing study was envisioned to track down the groundwater usability in terms of potability and irrigational suitability through comprehensive qualitative monitoring carried out seasonally in semi-urban district of western Uttar Pradesh, India, for assessing seasonal variability along with subsequent indexing and spatiotemporal mapping of the quality ranges. Potable groundwater variability is divulged with exceeding background levels of the majority of parameters under influences of effluent/wastewater discharges from densely populated residential and industrial land-use practices whereas parameters predicting irrigational usage were found in favourable limits among all the seasons. Significant seasonal variability was obtained exclusively for parameters like fluoride (F), nitrate (NO3−), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), residual bicarbonate (RSBC) and magnesium hazard (MH). Drinking aspect was appraised by the application of CCME WQI incorporating the standard parametric limits within the seasonal quality indexing. The results inferred that 46.1% (summer), 65.3% (post-monsoon), and 92.3% (winter) of the total samples were found marginal category elucidating that groundwater conditions often deviate from desirable levels regarded as critically impaired whereas very few samples were observed in fair and poor category. Irrigation WQI was applied to articulate groundwater irrigational usage where a majority of the samples were categorized under higher irrigation suitability with 69.2% (summer), 65.4% (post-monsoon), and 73.1% (winter), while the rest of the samples grouped into moderate suitability and none of the samples were encountered under unsuitable ranges. Spatiotemporal profiling of the potability and irrigational indexing has effectively highlighted the seasonal fluctuations within the plain by urban-industrial, brickfield kilns, and agrarian land use influences majorly for potability in comparison to agrarian usage. Thus, consistent monitoring and indexing of the groundwater quality is a crucial aspect for gauging the health status for further categorizing the consumptive usage in the region of interest.