Assessment of Ground Water Quality for Irrigation in Ardabil Plain

ABSTRACT: The Ardabil plain aquifer is located in Northwest Iran in the Province of Ardabil, and its groundwater resources are developed for water supply and irrigation purposes. In this paper the quality of groundwater in Ardabil plain was investigated for agricultural purposes. In order to evaluate the quality of groundwater in the study area, 65 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed to obtain various parameters such aselectrical conductivity (EC), magnesium ratio (MR), permeability index (PI), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), sodium percent (Na%) andresidual sodium carbonate (RSC).Distribution of each quality parameter was estimated using kriging interpolation method.The Intersection of these qualitative spatial distribution maps was used to generate the final map of quality. According to obtained results 5.62% of the area of Ardabil plain is good, 68.6% is permissible and 25.78% is unsuitable for irrigation which they have aerial coverage of about 61, 745 and 280 km2 respectively.