Spatializing Groundwater Quality Parameters and Their Impacts on Land Value in Khushab City, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This research was designed to examine the spatial variation in land value in response to ground water quality in Khushab city, Punjab Pakistan. There were four Physical and five chemical parameters such as pH, Electric Conductivity (EC), Calcium (Ca), hardness, Magnesium (Mg), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) concentration, taste, colorand odor were tested for groundwater quality appraisal in the study area. There were one hundred water samples collected from different wells in the study area. Thereafter, the water quality parameters were processed in ArcGIS for analyzing spatial distribution of groundwater quality parameters by using interpolation and geostatistical tools. It was found that all the groundwater parameters were higher than the permissible limit by WHO except pH concentration. It was further revealed that the ground water was unsafe for drinking and domestic purpose. Variation in land price was also studied with special reference to ground water quality. It was concluded that the groundwater quality has a significant effect on land value in the study area. The deteriorated groundwater quality was proved to be a potent determinant for decreasing land price in the study area.

Keywords

• groundwater
• gis
• land value
• water quality
• khushab