Health diagnosis of groundwater environment based on a projection pursuit model

Pollutants from various sources are entering groundwater systems due to changing land use and because groundwater environments are deteriorating at various scales worldwide. The health status of a groundwater environment can be used to indicate the degree of deterioration under natural or manmade stresses. This study proposes a concept for groundwater environment health and sets up an assessment index system to diagnose the health status of a groundwater environment based on a Bossel sustainable development index framework. The index system covers six basic categories (survival, effectiveness, freedom, security, adaptation and coexistence), which indicate various aspects of the health status of a groundwater environment. A projection pursuit (PP) model is developed for the assessment of groundwater environments and PP grade evaluation (PPGE) was used to evaluate the health status of a groundwater environment. The model was applied in Western Jilin province, China as a case study for groundwater environment management.