• Evaluation of Pollution Characteristics using Nitrate Background Levels, Nitrate Pollution Index, and Principal Component Analysis of Groundwater in Rural Areas, Hongsung-gun

  • Yeonkyeong Choi1,2ㆍKyung-Seok Ko1,2*ㆍHyowon An1,2ㆍHyunjeong Shin3ㆍSoojeong Jeong3 ㆍJeongah Lee3

  • 1Groundwater Environment Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM)
    2Geological Science, University of Science and Technology (UST)
    3Chungnam Regional Headquarters, Korea Rural Community Corporation

  • 지하수 질산염 배경농도 및 오염지수와 주성분분석을 이용한 농촌지역 홍성군의 지하수 오염특성 평가

  • 최연경1,2ㆍ고경석1,2*ㆍ안효원1,2ㆍ신현정3 ㆍ정수정3 ㆍ이정아3

  • 1한국지질자원연구원
    2과학기술연합대학원대학교
    3한국농어촌공사 충남지역본부

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize groundwater pollution in Hongseong-gun, a representative rural area, by conducting principal component analyses (PCA) for 12 water quality parameters. Nitrate (NO3) contamination was also assessed by identifying the background levels and threshold values (TV) of NO3 concentration, followed by estimation of nitrate pollution index (NPI) based on the TV value. The results of PCA anlayses showed that the top three PCs (PC1, PC2, and PC3) accounted for 68% of the total variation, with PC1 and PC2 being most influenced by EC and NO3, respectively. In calculation of background levels for groundwater constituents, the values estimated by the percentile method were higher than those by the probability plot method for all constituents except Na and NO3. The NPI values indicated moderate to severe contamination (classes 1-3) and showed an increase of over 10% in 2023 compared to 2005. The overall results of this study demonstrate that PCA analysis, along with background level and TV assessment, can effectively evaluate the factors influencing groundwater pollution in a typical rural area like Hongsung-gun. This study also confirmed that NPI serves as a reliable indicator for effective groundwater pollution management.


Keywords: Groundwater quality, Background levels, Threshold value, Nitrate pollution index, Principal component analysis

This Article

  • 2024; 29(6): 116-130

    Published on Dec 31, 2024

  • 10.7857/JSGE.2024.29.6.116
  • Received on Oct 25, 2024
  • Revised on Nov 20, 2024
  • Accepted on Dec 11, 2024

Correspondence to

  • Kyung-Seok Ko

  • 1Groundwater Environment Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM)
    2Geological Science, University of Science and Technology (UST)

  • E-mail: kyungsok@kigam.re.kr