IWQ index: a GIS-integrated technique to assess irrigation water quality

The irrigation water quality and the associated hazards to soil characteristics and crop yield is often a complex phenomenon that involves the combined effect of many parameters. From a management point of view, it is sometimes necessary to analyze all related parameters as a combination rather than focusing on a single isolated parameter. With this objective in mind, a new GIS-integrated tool is proposed in this study to evaluate the quality of irrigation waters with regards to potential soil and crop problems. The proposed procedure is mainly an index method that utilizes five hazard groups: (a) salinity hazard, (b) infiltration and permeability hazard, (c) specific ion toxicity, (d) trace element toxicity; and, (e) miscellaneous impacts on sensitive crops. A linear combination of these groups is formulated to form the so-called IWQ index, which is a technique that could be used to classify irrigation waters with respect to three suitability classes. The proposed technique is applied to assess the irrigation water quality of the Simav Plain located in western Anatolia, Turkey. The Simav application is implemented by using a GIS database developed for the plain. Based on the results of this application, the general groundwater quality in the surfacial aquifer is found to be fairly good and the aquifer waters are mostly suitable for irrigation purposes.