Abstract: In Bijie of Guizhou Province which is endowed with abundant karst groundwater resource, the unique geochemical background of parent rock carbonate rock gives rise to the special hydrochemistry and groundwater quality. We investigated the hydrochemical features of karst groundwater in Bijie and assessed the water quality in order to find out whether the karst groundwater in this area can be exploited as drinking water resource. According to hydrochemical test results of 22 groups of water samples collected from the study area, we obtained the Piper plot of groundwater’s chemical features via software AqQA and classified the water samples based on Shoka Lev’s classification. Moreover, we assessed the karst groundwater quality in the study area by using single factor evaluation and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Results unveil that the hydrochemical types of the study area are chiefly HCO₃-Ca·Mg, distributing in the west and south parts of the study area, with the hardness of carbonate in most areas greater than 50%. Single factor evaluation demonstrates that standard-meeting groundwater quality in the study area reaches 59.1%, whereas fuzzy comprehensive evaluation suggests that standard-meeting groundwater quality amounts to 81.8%. In general, groundwater resources in the study area can be exploited as drinking water resource. The findings of this study offer technical guidance for the exploitation of karst groundwater resources in this area.

Key words: karst groundwater, hydro-chemical characteristics, water quality assessment, single factor evaluation, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, Bijie