Groundwater Quality Assessment in the Northern Part of Changchun City, Northeast China, Using PIG and Two Improved PIG Methods

Xinkang Wang; Changlai Xiao; Xiujuan Liang; Mingqian Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph19159603

Groundwater Quality Assessment in the Northern Part of Changchun City, Northeast China, Using PIG and Two Improved PIG Methods

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 4;19(15):9603. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159603.

Authors

Xinkang Wang^{1

2

3

4}, Changlai Xiao^{1

2

3

4}, Xiujuan Liang^{1

2

3

4}, Mingqian Li^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
² National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of In-Situ Conversion, Drilling and Exploitation Technology for Oil Shale, Changchun 130021, China.
³ College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
⁴ Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.

Abstract

As a numerical indicator, the pollution index of groundwater (PIG) has gained a great deal of popularity in quantifying groundwater quality for drinking purposes. However, its weight-determination procedure is rather subjective due to the absolute dependence on experts' experience. To make the evaluation results more accurate and convincing, two improved PIG models (CRITIC-PIG and Entropy-PIG) that integrate subjective weights and objective weights were designed, and they were employed to appraise groundwater suitability for drinking purposes in the northern part of Changchun City. A total of 48 water samples (34 unconfined water samples and 14 confined water samples) with abundances of Ca²⁺ and HCO₃^- were collected and tested to obtain the data for the analyses. The results showed that 60.4%, 47.9% and 60.4% of the water samples manifested insignificant pollution and were marginally potable based on the values of the PIG, CRITIC-PIG and Entropy-PIG, respectively. Though 48% of the water samples had different evaluation results, their level difference was mostly 1, which is relatively acceptable. The distribution maps of the three sets of PIG values demonstrated that the quality of groundwater was the best in Dehui City and the worst in Nongan County. Groundwater contamination in the study area was mainly caused by the high concentrations of TDS, TH, Fe³⁺, F^- and NO₃^-, which not only came from geogenic sources but also anthropogenic sources.

Keywords: CRITIC-PIG; Entropy-PIG; PIG; groundwater quality assessment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Drinking Water* / analysis
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Groundwater* / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Water Quality

Substances

Drinking Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical

Grants and funding

This research study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41572216), the China Geological Survey Shenyang Geological Survey Center “regional water resources survey methods and groundwater ecological threshold survey research” project (DD20190340), the Provincial School Co-construction Project Special-Leading Technology Guide (SXGJQY2017-6), the Geological Survey Foundation of Jilin Province (2018-11), the Geological Survey Foundation of Jilin Province (2018-13) and the Geological Survey Foundation of Jilin Province (2021 xu-1).