Leather processing and its possible impact on groundwater quality in Silk Road sites: a case study from Chennai, India

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• 作者：V. Manivannan ; L. Elango
• 关键词：Civilisation ; Silk Road ; Tanneries ; Water quality
• 刊名：Environmental Earth Sciences
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：76
• 期：1
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Geology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Geochemistry; Environmental Science and Engineering; Terrestrial Pollution; Biogeosciences;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1866-6299
• 卷排序：76

文摘

Water plays an important role in human civilisation. Since ancient times people started to settle in regions with ensured water availability. Trade was an important factor for the development of civilisation. Silk Road is an important route used for the trading between China and other countries across Eurasia. Not only silk, many goods including leather were exchanged during trading. Leather was processing lead to release of large amount of wastewater. This study was carried out to understand how the leather processing would have affected the groundwater quality in Silk Road sites by studying the current scenarios of groundwater quality near tanning industries. Chennai and nearby cities such as Ranipet and Vaniyambadi are chosen for case studies. Groundwater quality around the tanneries was poor due to high electrical conductivity and concentration of chromium. This is due to the effluents released by the tanneries into the ground or open drains without proper treatment. Similarly, the leather processing in Silk Road sites would have also affected the groundwater quality.