Integrating community perceptions, scientific data and geospatial tools for sustainable water quality management

Globally, ecosystems and human health are at risk due to declining river water quality. The current study focuses on the River Asan, Uttarakhand, which faces significant water quality challenges due to various environmental, industrial, and domestic factors. This research presents an exhaustive study that intricately blends local community perceptions with scientific data, employing Geographic Information Systems to map water quality across seven critical locations along the river. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and systematic water quality test methods were applied to find the objective of this study. The research highlights the importance of considering social, cultural, and environmental factors in understanding water quality issues. The detailed, location-specific analysis, enriched by the vast array of community insights, offers a unique lens through which the environmental challenges at each site are examined. Significant findings represent that in Nayagaon, from 2019 to 2023, rising water temperature (1.6 °C increase) and decreasing pH (7.3–6.5) were observed. Reduced dissolved oxygen (9.7–6.1 mg/L) aligns with community concerns about water quality, highlighting the urgent need for interventions to protect the Asan River and its dependent communities. Integrating local perceptions with scientific data provides a nuanced understanding of water quality issues, emphasizing the urgent need for targeted interventions to safeguard the river ecosystem and the well-being of the communities dependent on it, thereby offering valuable insights for sustainable environmental management.