Radiological and Physicochemical Parameters in the Aquatic Environment at the Northeastern Coast of Andhra Pradesh, India—A Comprehensive Study
摘要
A decade long integrated assessment of physicochemical, radiological parameters was carried out over ~ 1500 km2 in the northeastern coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Approximately 1300,130, 40 ground, drinking, surface water samples were analysed for conventional water- quality parameters, uranium, and gross alpha/beta activity. Mean groundwater concentrations of TDS, hardness, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, and uranium were 1187 mgL−1, 251 mgL−1, 264 mgL−1, 76 mgL−1, 23 mgL−1, 2.4 mgL−1, and 3.9 µgL−1, respectively, all within regulatory limits. Most groundwater parameters exhibited positive skewness with kurtosis > 3, indicating leptokurtic distributions typical of environmental datasets. Uranium exhibited moderate positive correlations with EC (r = 0.37), TDS (r = 0.34), salinity (r = 0.39), chloride (r = 0.35), and sulphate (r = 0.29). Mann–Kendall trend analysis revealed a statistically significant decreasing trend in TDS and chloride at a representative location, indicating reduced saline influence, while uranium showed a weak but statistically insignificant increasing trend. Gross alpha, gross beta, and uranium activities were well below regulatory limits, and the estimated annual effective dose (< 0.1 mSv y−1) indicates negligible health risk. The study establishes a first comprehensive pre-operational baseline statistics essential for long-term environmental monitoring and assessment of future anthropogenic or nuclear-related impacts in the region.