Effect of land use changes on non-carcinogenic health risks due to nitrate exposure to drinking groundwater

Ahmad Badeenezhad; Majid Radfard; Fariba Abbasi; Anna Jurado; Mehdi Bozorginia; Mahrokh Jalili; Hamed Soleimani

doi:10.1007/s11356-021-13753-5

Effect of land use changes on non-carcinogenic health risks due to nitrate exposure to drinking groundwater

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Aug;28(31):41937-41947. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13753-5. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Authors

Ahmad Badeenezhad¹, Majid Radfard², Fariba Abbasi², Anna Jurado³, Mehdi Bozorginia⁴, Mahrokh Jalili⁵, Hamed Soleimani⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, Iran. ahmadbadee72@gmail.com.
² Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
³ Institute of Environmental Assessment & Water Research (IDAEA), CSI c, c / Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴ Department of Environmental Health, Shiraz Health Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁵ Environmental Science and Technology Research Center, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁶ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. hasulimany@yahoo.com.

PMID: 33797047
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-13753-5

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of land-use changes on the non-carcinogenic health risk of nitrate ion exposure of underground drinking water resources in Shiraz (Iran). To this end, 175 chemical samples for the nitrate analysis were regularly taken from 35 drinking water wells of Shiraz from 2013 to 2017, and their results were zoned using GIS. Hazard quotient (HQ) induced by nitrate ion exposure was determined in four age groups: infants, children, adolescents, and adults. Area changes of four types of land-use, including residential, agricultural and green space, industrial, and bare land within a radius of 400 m of drinking water wells, were determined using the GIS and Google Earth software. Then, all data was imported to Matlab 2018 for statistical analysis. The results showed that mean nitrate concentration increased by 2.5 mg L^-1 from 2013 to 2017. According to the zoning map, 5 and 11.4% of the area in 2013 and 2017, respectively, exceeded the drinking water standard set by nitrate (i.e., 50 mg/L). Air temperature and precipitation variations also influenced nitrate concentrations and HQ changes (R_temperature = 0.67). Children's age group was the most vulnerable, and during the study period, this vulnerability was an increasing trend, so that the HQ from 0.93 in 2013 to 0.97 in 2017 has increased. The rate of land-use changes in agricultural, industrial, bare, and urban was -1.8%, 1.3%, -4.6%, and 2.1%, respectively, and the highest correlation was observed between HQ and Diff.l residential land use (R_infant = 0.55). According to the results, the most influential factor in HQ was air temperature (R = 0.66), and urban land-use change (R > 0.44). To sum up, this study's results showed that land-use changes, especially urban and residential development, significantly affect groundwater nitrate concentration and its degree of HQ. Moreover, increasing temperature and decreasing annual precipitation can also increase the severity of this risk.

Keywords: Drinking groundwater; Land-use changes; Nitrate exposure; Non-carcinogenic health risks.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Child
Drinking Water*
Environmental Monitoring
Groundwater*
Humans
Infant
Nitrates / analysis
Risk Assessment
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Drinking Water
Nitrates
Water Pollutants, Chemical