This repository contains my slides presented at Spatial Statistics: Emerging Patterns 2015 conference, in Avignon, France on June 12, 2015. The title of the oral presentation is "Mapping human risk from contamination of drinking water sources in developing countries", reference number: O2.24, abstract sequel: SPAT2015_0024. The slides (Presentation_SPAT_Bhowmik.pdf) were created using Latex Beamer package and mtheme.
The consumption of contaminated drinking water is one of the major causes of mortality in developing countries, where the principal drinking water sources, i.e. ground and surface water, are subject to geogenic and anthropogenic contamination. However, water quality monitoring activities have been limited to a few administrative areas and a nationwide human risk assessment is often lacking. Using geographically weighted regression (GWR), we calculated nationwide human risk maps by predicting the concentration of 10 trace metals in the drinking water sources of Pakistan and comparing them to guideline values. Global soil properties, land cover and digital elevation models were fitted as spatial predictors. The GWR model predictions showed good agreement with observed values, while more than 53% of the total area of Pakistan was predicted to be at risk of drinking water contamination from arsenic, chromium, iron, nickel and lead. Moreover, more than 74 million people inhabit the area with elevated risk. These predictions demonstrate the power of GWR for risk assessment and can inform disease mitigation and water resources management regarding potential hot spots.
An article on this topic is currently under review in Science of the Total Environment.