GIS-Based Software Platform for Managing Hydrogeochemical Data

Abstract

A GIS-based software platform was developed to arrange all the available hydrogeochemical data into a comprehensive structure and provide support for its proper storage, management, analysis and interpretation. This platform is composed of a geospatial database and a set of analytical instruments integrated in a graphical user interface that coordinates its activities with several software. The geospatial database was specifically developed to store and manage organic and inorganic chemical records, as well as other physical parameters. The analytical tools cover a great range of methodologies for querying, comparing and interpreting groundwater quality parameters. This tools enable us to obtain automatically several calculations such as charge balance error and ionic ratios as well as calculations of various common hydrogeochemical diagrams (e.g. Schöeller-Berkaloff, Piper, Stiff) to which the spatial components are added. Moreover, it allows performing a complete statistical analysis of the data (e.g. generation of correlation matrix and bivariate analysis). Finally, this platform allows handling relevant auxiliary information in an efficient way, and it is coupled to a number of technologies such as hydrogeochemical modelling or geostatistical analysis. The software platform was used in a case study involving several urban aquifers located into the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) to illustrate its performance.