Lake water quality assessment using spatial interpolation and the development of the WQI on an educational campus, Assam, India

Abstract Monitoring water quality metrics is essential for managing water quality and safeguarding aquatic life. The NIT Silchar Lake has been a place for many aquatic plants and migratory birds. The lake water is typically used on campus for horticultureal purposes. However, the peasants living close to campus use the lake water for drinking during situations like floods or famine. At four separate locations of the lake, the samples were collected for evaluation of seven water quality indicators. Temperature between 22.4 and 30.5 °C and dissolved oxygen concentrations between 8 and 13 mg/l were found, which were optimal conditions for aquatic life. The water quality index (WQI), which gives an overall evaluation of the state of the water quality, was created from the measured values (six parameters). The lake regions that ranged from good to excellent were identified using ‘weighted arithmetic water quality index’ (WAWQI) technique. Further we have compared the WAWQI with another method. A comparative analysis has been done by developing simple codes with the help of python programming language. The inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation in GIS was applied for spatial distribution of water quality parameters and WQI.