ORIGINAL PAPER Assessment of water quality for drinking and irrigation purposes: a case study of Başköy springs (Ağlasun/Burdur/Turkey) Fatma Aksever 1 & Ayşen Davraz 1 & Yaşar Bal 1 Received: 8 May 2015 /Accepted: 1 December 2016 /Published online: 13 December 2016 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2016 Abstract It is important to know the quality of water re- sources for drinking, domestic and irrigation in the rural area. Because, in recent times, there has been increased demand for water due to population growth and intense agricultural activ- ities, so, hydrogeochemical investigations come into promi- nence for the groundwater use. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate water quality of Başköy springs for both drinking and irrigation purposes. The geochemical processes and quality of springs were followed as seasonal in the study area. In view of geochemical classification, springs are Ca-Mg-HCO 3 water type for both seasons. Comparison of geochemical data shows that majority of the spring samples are suitable for drinking water. On the other hand, chemical indexes of springs with various classifications were calculated for irrigation purposes. According to the classifications (electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, salinity hazard, percent sodi- um, sodium adsorption ratio, residual sodium carbonate, re- sidual sodium bicarbonate, permeability index, potential sa- linity, soluble sodium percentage, magnesium ratio, and Kelly’ s ratio), Başköy springs are suitable for irrigation pur- poses. However, water quality of Çaygözü spring is different the other springs due to the high electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids. Also, groundwater mineralization pro- cesses and rock–water interaction are controlled with bivariate diagrams of major elements. Keywords Groundwater quality . Hydrochemistry . Drinking and irrigation . Başköy springs Introduction Assessment of chemistry, geochemical processes, quality, classification, and sustainability of groundwater depend on the many factors and seasonal variation. So, the hydrochemical studies are responsible for managing and controlling of valuable groundwater resources. Due to the importance of aquifer system in the regional and national economy, fundamental hydrogeological patterns, such as groundwater hydrodynamics, hydrochemical characteris- tics, origins, and migration pathways of water masses, must be investigated (Hamed et al. 2011; Dassi 2011; Ben Moussa et al. 2009; Tarki et al. 2016). There have been various studies on assessment of groundwater qual- ity for drinking and irrigation purposes (Gowd 2005; Raju 2007; Kumar et al. 2007; Aghazadeh and Mogaddam 2010; Kaka et al. 2011; Al-Tabbal and Al-Zboon 2012; Nag and Das 2014; Kumar et al. 2014; Dassi 2011). In addition, numerous authors have reported about hydrochemical evaluations of groundwater (Jeevanandam et al. 2007; Arumugam and Elangovan 2009; Bahar and Reza 2010; Aghazadeh and Mogaddam 2011). There are many springs that are available in the study area as groundwater resources. These springs form the major source of water supply for drinking purposes in Başköy plain. Also, springs are important for agricultur- al purposes in the region. In this study, hydrochemical processes, drinking water chemistry and to classify for agricultural purposes of springs, were evaluated in order to determine the water quality. * Fatma Aksever fatmaaksever@sdu.edu.tr Yaşar Bal aysendavraz@sdu.edu.tr 1 Department of Geological Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey Arab J Geosci (2016) 9: 748 DOI 10.1007/s12517-016-2778-y