Comparison of surface water quality to land use: a case study from Tripura, India.

Land use pattern of a location is a key factor to determine the quality of water in that area. A case study was performed to understand the influence of land use on the quality of surface water. Water quality indices of surface water from different locations within study area were compared with the land use pattern of that location. Multi-criteria decision-making methods, like weighted sum method, weighted product method and grey relational analysis, were used to determine the priority values (PV) of the different water quality parameters on the basis of important criteria like hazard potential, cost of mitigation, utilization potential and popularity among the researchers. Water quality indices of the samples were calculated from those PV by weighted average method. The indices were then compared with respective land use pattern to assess the relation between land use pattern and water quality. The results suggest that dense settlement, moderate to low vegetation and dense cultivation is good for surface water, whereas low settlement, dense vegetation and moderate cultivation is bad for surface water. These findings may be useful for managers and policy makers to manage land use for maintaining the optimum quality of surface water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]