TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental tracers and groundwater residence time indicators reveal controls of arsenic accumulation rates beneath a rapidly developing urban area in Patna, India
AU - Richards, Laura A.
AU - Kumari, Rupa
AU - Parashar, Neha
AU - Kumar, Arun
AU - Lu, Chuanhe
AU - Wilson, George
AU - Lapworth, Dan
AU - Niasar, Vahid J.
AU - Ghosh, Ashok
AU - Chakravorty, Biswajit
AU - Krause, Stefan
AU - Polya, David A.
AU - Gooddy, Daren C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by a Department of Science and Technology (DST, India) – Newton Bhabha – Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC, UK) – Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, UK) Indo-UK Water Quality Programme award ( NE/R003386/1 and DST/TM/INDO-UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G) ; 2018–2021 to DP et al; see www.farganga.org ) and a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellowship (to LR). We acknowledge Prabhat Shankar, Aman Gaurav, Siddhu Kumar (all Mahavir Cancer Sansthan) and Samuel Addison (University of Manchester) for contributions to fieldwork. Paul Lythgoe, Alastair Bewsher, Ilya Strashnov, Rosie Byrne and Abby Ragazzon-Smith are thanked for analytical support. Graham Craik is thanked for writing a data processing script. We are grateful for the kind support of local landowners and water users who facilitated sample site access. DCG and DJL publish with the permission of the Director British Geological Survey (BGS-UKRI). We thank the three anonymous reviewers whose suggestions have improved the manuscript. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the institutions, funders or individuals whose support is acknowledged.
Funding Information:
This research is supported by a Department of Science and Technology (DST, India) – Newton Bhabha – Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC, UK) – Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, UK) Indo-UK Water Quality Programme award (NE/R003386/1 and DST/TM/INDO-UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G); 2018–2021 to DP et al; see www.farganga.org) and a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellowship (to LR). We acknowledge Prabhat Shankar, Aman Gaurav, Siddhu Kumar (all Mahavir Cancer Sansthan) and Samuel Addison (University of Manchester) for contributions to fieldwork. Paul Lythgoe, Alastair Bewsher, Ilya Strashnov, Rosie Byrne and Abby Ragazzon-Smith are thanked for analytical support. Graham Craik is thanked for writing a data processing script. We are grateful for the kind support of local landowners and water users who facilitated sample site access. DCG and DJL publish with the permission of the Director British Geological Survey (BGS-UKRI). We thank the three anonymous reviewers whose suggestions have improved the manuscript. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the institutions, funders or individuals whose support is acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Groundwater security is a pressing environmental and societal issue, particularly due to significantly increasing stressors on water resources, including rapid urbanization and climate change. Groundwater arsenic is a major water security and public health challenge impacting millions of people in the Gangetic Basin of India and elsewhere globally. In the rapidly developing city of Patna (Bihar) in northern India, we have studied the evolution of groundwater chemistry under the city following a three-dimensional sampling framework of multi-depth wells spanning the central urban zone in close proximity to the River Ganges (Ganga) and transition into peri-urban and rural areas outside city boundaries and further away from the river. Using inorganic geochemical tracers (including arsenic, iron, manganese, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, sulfate, sulfide and others) and residence time indicators (CFCs and SF6), we have evaluated the dominant hydrogeochemical processes occurring and spatial patterns in redox conditions across the study area. The distribution of arsenic and other redox-sensitive parameters is spatially heterogenous, and elevated arsenic in some locations is consistent with arsenic mobilization via reductive dissolution of iron hydroxides. Residence time indicators evidence modern (
AB - Groundwater security is a pressing environmental and societal issue, particularly due to significantly increasing stressors on water resources, including rapid urbanization and climate change. Groundwater arsenic is a major water security and public health challenge impacting millions of people in the Gangetic Basin of India and elsewhere globally. In the rapidly developing city of Patna (Bihar) in northern India, we have studied the evolution of groundwater chemistry under the city following a three-dimensional sampling framework of multi-depth wells spanning the central urban zone in close proximity to the River Ganges (Ganga) and transition into peri-urban and rural areas outside city boundaries and further away from the river. Using inorganic geochemical tracers (including arsenic, iron, manganese, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, sulfate, sulfide and others) and residence time indicators (CFCs and SF6), we have evaluated the dominant hydrogeochemical processes occurring and spatial patterns in redox conditions across the study area. The distribution of arsenic and other redox-sensitive parameters is spatially heterogenous, and elevated arsenic in some locations is consistent with arsenic mobilization via reductive dissolution of iron hydroxides. Residence time indicators evidence modern (
KW - Arsenic
KW - Ganga River Basin
KW - Groundwater
KW - India
KW - Redox zones
KW - Residence time indicators
KW - Water quality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132370692&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/84fd0d64-255b-3f07-a860-c85bde6bdd74/
U2 - 10.1016/j.jconhyd.2022.104043
DO - 10.1016/j.jconhyd.2022.104043
M3 - Article
SN - 0169-7722
VL - 249
SP - 104043
JO - Journal of Contaminant Hydrology
JF - Journal of Contaminant Hydrology
M1 - 104043
ER -
