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Water quality index toward a reliable assessment for water supply uses: a novel approach

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Abstract

The present work sheds the light on a novel approach developed for water quality index, aiming to assess the water quality of the Tigris River for potable abstractions. The Tigris River water quality index (TrWQI) was devised via utilizing unlike tools and data, this includes; availability of water quality data, statistical correlations, water quality guidelines, and the experts' opinions. Ten water quality parameters were involved in the adopted index: turbidity, pH, water temperature, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, iron, sulfate, alkalinity and total coliform bacteria. Five sampling stations were selected to perform the TrWQI for the period of April 2019. Generally, the results of the index have manifested that the water quality was within “Fair” to “Poor” range. With considering the application of TrWQI, reasonable results have been achieved if compared with the raw data of the Tigris River. Indeed, the index was capable to endow serviceable information for managers and decision-makers to sustain the quality of the river.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all who assisted in conducting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

    B.S. Abed

  2. Water Resources Techniques Department, Institute of Technology-Baghdad, Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq

    A.A.-R Farhan & A.H. Ismail

  3. Al-Rafidain University College, Palestine Street, Baghdad, Iraq

    S. Al Aani

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  1. B.S. Abed
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  2. A.A.-R Farhan
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  3. A.H. Ismail
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  4. S. Al Aani
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All authors contributed equally to this work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to A.H. Ismail.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia.

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Abed, B., Farhan, AR., Ismail, A. et al. Water quality index toward a reliable assessment for water supply uses: a novel approach. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 2885–2898 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03338-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03338-7

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