Groundwater contamination analysis using Fuzzy Water Quality index (FWQI): Yazd province, Iran

Abstract

Fuzzy Water Quality Index (FWQI) was applied in order to assess the degree of drinking water resources in Yazd province, Iran. This<br />study has also offered the creation of a new fuzzy water quality index (FWQI) to evaluate this tool's applicability. 12 chemical<br />parameters including toxic and non-toxic heavy metals measured in 71 groundwater samples collected from drinking water resources<br />in rural areas were used. In FWQI, input data are categorized into three linguistic terms (“Desirable" or “Low", “Acceptable" or<br />“Medium" and “Not-acceptable" or “High") based on water quality standards for drinking water, Whereas the output data are<br />categorized into five classes (“Poor", “Fair", “Medium", “Good" and “Excellent") based on water quality index (WQI). The results<br />show that 8 groundwater samples were classified in the “Excellent" class with a certainty level of 5.33-76.67%, 41 samples in the<br />“Good" group with a certainty level of 8.5-96.5%, 8 samples were in the “Medium" category with a certainty level of 14-93.5%, 1<br />sample in the “Fair" level with a certainty level of 36.5%, and 13 samples were classified in the “Poor" class with a certainty level of<br />54.8-81.5% for potable purposes. The proposed Index can be a useful tool to be used in decision-making and environmental.