Quality zonation of nitrate concentration for underground sources of drinking water in Lavasan City using Geographic Information System (GIS)

With this increasing population growth, the need for drinking water sources is significantly important. One of the important sources of exploitation of water in arid and semi-arid areas is underground water. Currently one of the most important environmental issues is nitrate contamination of underground water resources. Nitrate easily enters surface water resources and especially underground water resources by rainwater. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of nitrate contamination of 10 wells in Lavasan City that has been exploited in 3 consecutive years (from 2012-2014) using Geographic Information System. The sampling is conducted in the frequency of 6 month and 60 samples is gathered. Nitrate concentration of the samples is measured and is zoned and analyzed in the whole region. The results show that the nitrate concentration in drinking water sources of the city lavas an is range from 3.48 to 30.80 ppm and its average is 12.95. The amount of nitrates in all samples is lower than the standard.