Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
R
OLE OF
G
EOGRAPHIC
I
NFORMATION
S
YSTEM FOR
W
ATER
Q
UALITY
E
VALUATION
Deepesh Machiwal
1,
and Madan Kumar Jha
2,†
1
Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional
Research Station, Bhuj, Gujarat, India
2
AgFE Department, IIT Kharagpur,
Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
A
BSTRACT
Water quality evaluation is an overall process of evaluating physical,
chemical and biological nature of water in relation to natural quality,
human effects and intended uses particularly uses which may affect
human health and the health of the ecosystem itself. Interpretation of
enormous water quality data in a convenient manner for visual inspection
is an important but often underestimated or omitted step in a water quality
evaluation program. Recently, need of modern approaches and tools for
interpreting water quality is emphasized for efficient water quality
management. Geographic Information System (GIS), with an ability of
capturing, storing, analyzing, manipulating, retrieving and displaying
spatial data, has emerged as a powerful tool for decision-making in
