Assessment of water quality of the Narmada River (India) using fuzzy water quality index method.

Abstract

This study aims to assess the water quality of the Narmada River utilizing the fuzzy water quality index method. In this context, samples of water were gathered from six sampling stations for various parameters like turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), electrical conductivity (EC), total hardness (TH), total alkalinity (TA) and chlorides in 2021-22. Due to contamination from domestic wastewater, dairy industrial activities, and agricultural activity, water quality assessment has become essential. To address this requirement, the water quality index (WQI) was developed which incorporates various water quality parameters and expresses total water quality into a single value. Nowadays, to get around WQI, the fuzzy water quality index (FWQI) method has been developed. To develop FWQI, eleven input, single output, Mamdani method, And operators, fuzzy inference rules, and centroid methods for defuzzification have been used. Results of FWQI revealed that Station Third was adversely affected by urban activities, Station First was influenced by tributaries, and Station Six was impacted by agricultural activities. According to the rating scale, the value of FWQI revealed that water quality was poor at the first four stations and good at the last two stations. Comparing the result of FWQI with WQI have found a five percent variation for the same water samples. This new index could serve as an alternative approach to assessing water quality.