Author(s)

Abdalkarim S. Gharbia^1*, Salem S. Gharbia^2,3, Thaer Abushbak^1,4, Hisham Wafi¹, Adnan Aish¹, Martina Zelenakova⁵, Francesco Pilla³

¹Institute of Water and Environment, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine.
²Department of Water Resources and Planning, Palestinian Water Authority, Gaza, Palestine.
³Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
⁴Ministry of Agriculture, Gaza, Palestine.
⁵Institute of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia.

Groundwater quality is a major environmental aspect which needs to be analyzed and managed depending on its spatial distribution. Utilization of insufficient management of groundwater resources in Gaza Strip, Palestine, produces not only a reduction in quantity but also deterioration in quality of groundwater. The aim of this study is to provide an overview for evaluation of groundwater quality in the Gaza Strip area as a case study for applying spatially distributed by using Geographic Information System (GIS) and geostatistical algorithms. The groundwater quality parameters, pH, total dissolved solids, total hardness, alkalinity, chloride, nitrate, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, and fluoride, were sampled and analyzed from the existing municipal and agricultural wells in Gaza Strip; maps of each parameter were created using geostatistical (Kriging) approach. Experimental semivariogram values were tested for different ordinary Kriging models to identify the best fitted for the ten water quality parameters and the best models were selected on the basis of mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), average standard error (ASE), and root mean square standardized error (RMSSE). Maps of 10 groundwater quality parameters were used to calculate the groundwater quality index (GWQI) map using the index method. In general, the results showed that this integrated method is a sufficient assessment tool for environmental spatially distributed parameters.

Groundwater, Water Quality, GIS, Geo-Statistics

Gharbia, A. , Gharbia, S. , Abushbak, T. , Wafi, H. , Aish, A. , Zelenakova, M. and Pilla, F. (2016) Groundwater Quality Evaluation Using GIS Based Geostatistical Algorithms. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 4, 89-103. doi: 10.4236/gep.2016.42011.