Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335
DOI 10.1007/s10661-009-0837-5
Development of groundwater quality index
Mohesn Saeedi · Ozeair Abessi ·
Farid Sharifi · Hamed Meraji
Received: 3 November 2008 / Accepted: 5 February 2009 / Published online: 18 March 2009
© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract Assessing the water quality status for
special use is the main objective of any water
quality monitoring studies. The water quality
index (WQI) is a mathematical instrument used
to transform large quantities of water quality data
into a single number which represents the water
quality level. In fact, developing WQI in an area is
a fundamental process in the planning of land use
and water resources management. In this study, a
simple methodology based on multivariate analy-
sis is developed to create a groundwater quality
index (GWQI), with the aim of identifying places
with best quality for drinking within the Qazvin
province, west central of Iran. The methodology
is based on the definition of GWQI using average
value of eight cation and anion parameters for
163 wells during a 3-year period. The proportion
of observed concentrations to the maximum al-
lowable concentration is calculated as normalized
value of each parameter in observing wells. Final
indices for each well are calculated considering
weight of each parameter. In order to assess the
M. Saeedi (B) · O. Abessi · F. Sharifi · H. Meraji
Department of Hydraulics and Environment,
School of Civil Engineering,
Iran University of Science and Technology,
Narmak, Tehran, Iran
e-mail: msaeedi@iust.ac.ir
O. Abessi
e-mail: Abessi@iust.ac.ir
groundwater quality of study area, the derived
indices are compared with those of well-known
mineral waters. Using developed indices, ground-
water iso-index map for study area and the map of
areas of which the indices are near to mineral wa-
ters was drawn. In the case study, the GWQI map
reveals that groundwater quality in two areas is
extremely near to mineral water quality. Created
index map provides a comprehensive picture of
easily interpretable for regional decision makers
for better planning and management.
Keywords Groundwater quality index ·
Iso-index map · Qazvin province ·
Drinking water
Introduction
The comprehensive groundwater monitoring study
that lie on the basis of policy implementations is
needed in each area which is going to be extracted
as drinking water source. Use of water quality
assessment indices (WQIs) as aggregation and
communication tools for monitoring the water
quality is prevalent in these cases. Generally,
indices have been developed to summarize water
quality data in an easily expressible and under-
standable format. Indices by design contain less
information than the raw data that they sum-
marize then any use of water quality data cannot
328
be met with an index. Hence, indices are usually
useful for comparative purposes and for general
questions. Concern to existed data different ways
are possible to develop a water quality index.
So far, many researches and projects have been
conducted to measure surface and groundwater
quality index (GWQI). The general WQI was
developed by Brown et al. (1970) and improved
by Deininger for the Scottish Development De-
partment (1975). Horton (1965) suggested that the
various water quality data could be aggregated
into an overall index. Over the years, many in-
dices have been calculated for special purposes
(Dalkey 1968; Liebman 1969; Prati et al. 1971;
O’Connor 1972; Harkins 1974; Walski and Parker
1974; Inhaber 1975; Shaefer and Janardan 1977;
Provencher and Lamontagne 1979; Couillard and
Lefebvre 1985; House and Ellis 1987).
The development of WQIs for groundwater
is described in the literature by various authors.
Backman et al. (1998) present an index for
evaluating and mapping the degree of ground-
water contamination and test its applicability in
Southwestern Finland and Central Slovakia. A
simple WQI involving nine parameters is cre-
Fig. 1 General 4520000
topography of the
31440000
study area
34400000
31360000
Latitude
31320000
31280000
40
4520000
Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335
ated by Soltan (1999) to indicate the quality of
groundwater from ten artesian wells located near
the Dakhla Oasis in the Egyptian Western. The
work of S’tambuk-Giljanovic (1999) reports the
creation of a WQI both for surface waters and
groundwater and the results of its application for
water evaluation in Dalmatia, Croatia. Coulibaly
and Rodriguez (2004) develop utility performance
indicators on the basis of operational, infrastruc-
ture, and maintenance characteristics of utilities
for explaining surface water and groundwater
quality as main source of drinking water in Quebec
(Canada). Stigter et al. (2006a, b) used ground-
water quality indices for evaluating influence of
agriculture activities on several key parameters of
groundwater chemistry and potability.
In this research, a simple attempt to formulate
water quality indices using principal component
of drinking water was conducted in a large area.
The basic objective of current article is to develop
WQIs as a monitoring tool for groundwater qual-
ity of Qazvin plateau area, Qazvin province, Iran.
In the study area, it had been proven that the un-
dergroundwater is clean with no harmful agents.
The developed GWQIs are aimed to rapidly
4560000 4600000 4640000 4680000 4720000
31440000
34400000
31360000
0-7 % slope
20 0 40 7.15 % slope
Kilometers
>15 % slope
4560000 4600000 4640000
Longitude
Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335 329

distinguish the location of most and least suitable
water for drink in the study area concern to its
water mineral content. In this study, the GWQI
map of Qazvin plateau area derived from drinking
water quality standard of Iran is drawn. By map-
ping the index, the areas of high and low water
quality can easily be distinguished by scientists as
well as policymakers or the general public.
Study area
Qazvin province, with the area of 15,821 Km2 , is
located in central western of Iran. This province
is limited to Mazandaran and Gilan province from
north, Hamedan and Zanjan from west, Markazi
province from the south, and Tehran from the
east. Qazvin plateau, the main plateau of the
province, is bounded by Alborz, Rameneh, and
Kharghan mountains, has an area of approxi-
mately 7,125 Km2 . The study area involved differ-
ent residential and industrial regions which supply
the needed water from groundwater resources.
Groundwater is the main source of water in this
area which discharges about 410 million cubic
meter per year and may be altered quantitative
and qualitatively by industrial (i.e., steam power
plants) and residential sources (Saeedi and Amini
2007). There are lots of wells in the rich aquifers
of the area that were mostly used as a source of
drinking water. Discharge mainly occurs in the
central part of the province where actually the city
of Qazvin and its industry zone are located. The
location of the study areas is illustrated in Fig. 1.
This figure shows the location and the general
topography of Qazvin plateau in Qazvin province.
Figure 2 also shows the level of the groundwater
in the area.
Groundwater quality index
The methodology considering for development of
the GWQI first shown by Ribeiro et al. (2002),
similar to other index construction techniques,
involves three steps:
1. Selection
2. Standardization
3. Aggregation of the parameters to be included
In the more common methods, standardization
is often performed by creating empirical rating

Fig. 2 Level of 4520000 4560000 4600000 4640000 4680000 4720000

31440000
31440000

groundwater table in
the study area (m)

34400000
34400000
31360000

31360000
Latitude

31320000
31320000

<30
31280000
31280000

30-45
45-60
30 15 0 30 >60
Kilometers

4520000 4560000 4600000 4640000 4680000 4720000

Longitude
330 Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335

Table 2 Weight of participation of each parameter in final

curves obtained by the survey, i.e., empirically
(Stigter et al. 2006a) establishing a relationship
between expected values and dimensionless sub-
index values. The resulting values are then ag-
gregated using some types of sum or mean (e.g.,
arithmetic, harmonic, geometric), frequently in-
cluding individual weighing factors (Horton 1965;
House and Ellis 1987; Yagow 1997; Melloul and
Collin 1998). The main advantage of a rating curve
is that it rapidly transforms the concentration of
a parameter into a quality score to represent the
water quality for a given use.
Methodology
Different approaches to indexing water quality
results are possible. In this paper, concern to
mention studies, an innovative method for de-
velopment of the GWQI, has been emphasized.
The method is a simple, inexpensive, and fairly
accurate way that could be used instead of the
complicated techniques to merge the water qual-
ity variables in usable indices. In this approach,
the proportion of observed concentrations of a
few principal parameters to the maximum admis-
sible concentration in water quality standards is
calculated as standard value of the parameters.
In order to aggregate all the standardized value
in a parameter, each parameter are weighted.
Finally, to verify the derived indices and make
scenes of them, same approach is applied for
some approved mineral water as healthy and well-
qualified water.
Mineral water is water that has either naturally
or artificially added minerals to alter its taste or
give it therapeutic value. Mineral water is usually
obtained from a water source rich in some kind of
beneficial mineral such as Ca2+ , Mg2+ , Na+ , K+ ,
and Cl− thought to be beneficial to the health.
Concern to the contents of trace minerals in spring
or well waters, any natural water which contains
similar minerals, have been considered as healthy
water. Minerals in drinking water are more easily
quality index
Selected parameters Parameters’ weight in final
water quality index
K+ 0.04
Na+ 0.06
Mg2+ 0.15
Ca2+ 0.2
SO2−
4 0.1
Cl− 0.1
pH 0.2
TDS 0.15
and better absorbed than minerals from food then
supplying water with enough amounts of bene-
ficial minerals should be considered in drinking
water supply in each residential area.
Results and discussion
In this study, introduced indices of the ground-
water quality are derived based on cation and
anion contents of groundwater. These indices can
only express the quality level of potable water in
underground resources of the study area. In the
phase of “selection,” eight different parameters,
K+ , Na+ , Ca2+ , Mg2+ , SO2− −
4 , Cl , pH, and TDS
as the important components of healthy water, are
selected to be involved in the index. As mentioned
above, healthy water is clean water which keeps
mentioned beneficial minerals. Table 1 shows the
selected parameters and their standard values ac-
cording to the drinking water quality standards
of Iran.
In order to develop a GWQI for the study area,
560 observations of selected parameters for 163
observation wells are collected. Most sampling
campaigns were performed between 2002 and
2005, and the wells have got several observations.
In this step, in order to consider probable errors
and seasonal changes of groundwater quality, the
average values of each parameter are calculated.
In the second phase, the proportions of ob-
served mean concentration of selected parameters

Table 1 Potable water quality standards of Iran (mg l−1 )

K+ Na+ Ca2+ Mg2+ SO2−
4 Cl− pH TDS
Iran 12 200 200 150 400 600 6.5–8.5 2000
Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335 331

Table 3 Characteristics Parameter Mineral water

of five selected mineral
Damavand I Vata Atige Damash Damavand II
waters (mg l−1 )
K+ 0.2 1.9 0.25 1 0.1
Na+ 4.6 4.7 4 6 1
Mg2+ 15.4 2.3 13.5 4 7.61
Ca2+ 56.4 9.8 45 28 32.06
SO2−
4 0.1 19 6.7 10 3
Cl− 6 8 5.7 9 6
pH 7.3 7 7.96 7.3 7.4
TDS 180 240 200 118 140

Table 4 Calculated Concentration Mineral water

indices of each
Damavand I Vata Atige Damash Damavand II
mineral water
K+ 0.016 0.158 0.0208 0.083 0.0083
Na+ 0.023 0.023 0.02 0.03 0.005
Mg2+ 0.102 0.015 0.09 0.0267 0.0507
Ca2+ 0.28 0.049 0.225 0.14 0.16
SO2−
4 0.0003 0.047 0.0167 0.025 0.0075
Cl− 0.01 0.013 0.0095 0.015 0.01
pH 0 0 0 0 0
TDS 0.09 0.12 0.1 0.059 0.07
Final WQI 0.0884 0.0439 0.0782 0.050 0.0526

Table 5 Maximum, mean, and minimum values of chemical contents of water in six wells in the study area
Well no. K+ Na+ Mg2+ Ca2+
Max Mean Min Max Mean Min Max Mean Min Max Mean Min
6 0.03 0.02 0.01 1.08 1 0.92 1.58 1.20 0.83 2.5 2.15 1.8
53 0.01 0.01 0.01 2.16 2.06 1.94 1 0.55 0.32 12.1 1.05 1.01
121 0.01 0.01 0.01 1.03 0.85 0.7 0.96 0.85 0.8 1.85 1.45 1.12
108 0.08 0.07 0.06 6.35 5.77 5.48 2.77 1.90 1.42 2.89 2.38 1.27
62 0.09 0.07 0.06 5.48 5.33 5.2 3.14 2.88 2.3 3.79 3.42 2.99
37 0.04 0.03 0.03 8.55 8.04 7.55 1.55 1.41 1.22 2.37 1.81 0.85
72 0.1 0.10 0.09 20 18.20 17 2.81 2.64 2.49 4.8 4.26 3.96
98 0.16 0.15 0.14 15.44 15.35 15.1 5.63 4.71 4.22 2.69 2.44 2.33
93 0.18 0.17 0.16 19.7 18.30 17.6 4.77 4.53 4.31 2.9 2.59 2.37
SO2−
4 Cl− pH TDS
Max Mean Min Max Mean Min Max Mean Min Max Mean Min
6 0.77 0.68 0.58 0.48 0.39 0.3 8.2 8.18 8.15 284 279 274
53 0.43 0.36 0.27 0.5 0.37 0.2 7.98 7.77 7.4 279 234.3 202
121 0.82 0.47 0.23 0.5 0.33 0.2 8.3 8.21 8.06 218 202 191
108 2.41 1.75 1.06 4 4.83 5.5 8.65 7.76 7.3 685 635.3 576
62 4.16 3.97 3.75 4 3.70 3.5 8.42 7.94 7.4 680 764.5 909
37 5.62 4.68 4.06 2.4 1.70 1.4 8.3 7.95 7.6 925 752.8 647
72 9.11 8.31 7.7 12.6 11.70 11 8.46 8.17 7.9 1787 1623.3 1517
98 8.05 6.32 5.52 14 13.50 13 8.49 8.22 7.6 1564 1506.5 1410
93 10.6 8.13 4.27 19 13.98 8 8.41 8.20 7.7 1717 1667.5 1573
332 Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335

Fig. 3 The location

of mentioned wells in 4080000
Qazvin province

4060000

4040000

4020000 53
121 37
4000000 108
62
3980000 98
93
72
3960000
6

3840000

3920000

280000 320000 360000 400000 440000 480000 500000

to the maximum admissible concentration in Iran
National Drinking Water Standards are calcu-
lated. The obtained fractions are normalized
values of concentration of each parameter in ob-
serving wells.
In order to calculate the final index, by aggre-
gating all of normalized parameters, the relative
importance or the weights of parameters in final
groundwater quality index are defined. Table 2
shows the weight of participation of each para-
meter in final index. These values are identified
according to the judgment of water quality experts
and some studies in importance of each drinking
water components (TAMAB 2006; Saeedi 2005).
In this step, for each observing well, by aggre-
gating the normalized value of parameters accord-
ing to the previously discussed weights, the final
groundwater quality indices are identified. The
derived quality index value of each well shows
the quality characteristic of that well to be used
as the source of drinking water. The identified in-
dices are used to draw iso-index map of the study
area. So-called maps enhance the local decision
and policymakers to select the proper source of
drinking water in this area.
In this research, in order to verify the de-
rived indices and make scenes of them, the pre-
viously discussed methodology is applied to five

Table 6 Some calculated indices in the study area

Well no. K+ Na+ Mg2+ Ca2+ SO2−
4 Cl− pH TDS Final index Water quality as
mineral content
6 0.02 1 1.19 2.15 0.67 0.39 8.175 279 0.025 Low
53 0.01 2.06 0.55 1.05 0.35 0.36 7.77 234.3 0.020 Low
121 0.01 0.85 0.85 1.45 0.47 0.33 8.21 202.6 0.021 Low
108 0.065 5.76 1.89 2.38 1.75 4.82 7.75 635.25 0.055 Suitable
62 0.0725 5.33 2.87 3.41 3.97 3.7 7.93 764.5 0.067 Suitable
37 0.032 8.03 1.4 1.8 4.67 1.7 7.94 752.75 0.064 Suitable
72 0.096 18.2 2.63 4.26 8.31 11.7 8.17 1623.3 0.338 High
98 0.15 15.34 4.7 2.44 6.32 13.5 8.22 1506.5 0.329 High
93 0.172 18.3 4.53 2.59 8.12 13.97 8.19 1667.5 0.343 High
Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335 333

Fig. 4 Iso-index map

for Qazvin plateau 4080000
groundwater
4060000

4040000

4020000

Latitude
4000000

3980000

3960000

3840000

3920000

280000 320000 360000 400000 440000 480000 500000

Longitude

well-known approved mineral water in Iran.
These mineral waters are from natural spring in
different part of Iran used as comparison criteria
to identify the wells with better quality.
The characteristic of these mineral waters are
shown in Table 3. Table 4 shows the calculated wa-
ter quality index for those mineral waters accord-
ing to the previously discussed methodology. It is
obvious that the particular wells, indices of which
are near to the index of these mineral waters, are
more suitable to be used as a source of drinking.
The methodology is applied for observation
well in the study area, and 163 separate water
quality indices are derived. Table 5 shows max-
imum, mean, and minimum values of chemical
contents in some important wells as representative
wells in the study area. The location of mentioned
well in the Qazvin province have been sketched
in Fig. 3. Table 6 shows the indices of these wells
which are located near residential area. The first
column shows the number of well between 163
total wells. Columns 2 to 9 show the normalized
value of observed parameters of each well, and
column 10 shows the final WQI of the wells. As
it can be seen and highlighted, the well number
of 108, 62, and 37 have the nearest WQI to the

Fig. 5 Areas the indices

of which are near to 4080000
mineral waters
4060000

4040000

4020000

4000000

3980000

3960000

3840000

3920000 Selected Area

280000 320000 360000 400000 440000 480000 500000
334
previously calculated indices of mineral waters.
So, the quality of the groundwater around these
wells has been estimated near to mineral waters,
considering mentioned eight parameters. The last
column shows also the state of water quality as
mineral content of the wells in the terms of high
(GWQI > 0.15), low (GWQI < 0.04), and suitable
(0.04 < GWQI < 0.15).
In the next step, the iso-index map for Qazvin
plateau groundwater is drawn, using derived
groundwater quality indices (Fig. 4). Figure 5 also
shows areas, the well indices of which are near
to considered mineral waters which vary around
0.05. The groundwater in these areas is truly min-
eralized similar to mineral waters.
Conclusions
Water quality indices are developed as a tool to
summarize and report on the monitoring data to
the decision makers to be able to understand the
status of the water quality in a water source and
to have the opportunity for better use in future.
In the article, the simple process of determining
the GWQI in Qazvin plateau is described. GWQI
is a useful tool for monitoring the groundwater
quality and for evaluating its potential to fit spe-
cific purpose. In this study, the developed indices
seek the places with the best quality for drink in
the large area. A new method was used to merge
the original water quality parameters of each well
into a single index in an understandable and effi-
cient way. Using calculated GWQI for each well
iso-index map for Qazvin plateau is plotted. The
resulting map, being easily interpretable, could
serve as a communication tool to inform the lo-
cal population as well as governmental agencies
about the water quality status for better use in
future. The numerical and graphical evaluations
of groundwater quality in the study area reveal
that groundwater quality in many part of Qazvin
plateau is near to mineral waters and is suitable to
be used for drinking.
Despite the fact that the use of an index may
not be the best way to understand large-scale
water quality conditions, for specific use, it would
be the only way. Indices can also overcome com-
Environ Monit Assess (2010) 163:327–335
munication problems between scientists and wa-
ter managers or policymakers. Their application
should always involve the necessary prudence, as
standardization and aggregation of the variables
are subjective procedures accompanied by a loss
of information. Therefore, the index can never be
considered as a final quantitative assessment of
capability of groundwater to be used as a reliable
source of drinking water but should be applied as
a purpose-specific water management tool.
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