Rising food, housing and energy demand of increasing population creates an immense pressure on water resources, especially on water quality. The water quality around the globe is degrading primarily due to intense agricultural activities associated with rapid urbanization. This study attributes to cause of water quality problem, indices to measure water quality, methods to identify proper explanatory variables to water quality and it's processing to capture the special effect, and finally modeling of water quality using identified explanatory variables to provide insights. This would help policymakers and watershed managers to take necessary steps to protect water quality for the future as well as current generation. Finally, some knowledge gaps are also discussed which need to be addressed in the future studies.
Keywords: Contamination potential index; Hydrological sensitive area; Land use; Shannon's diversity index; Water quality; Water quality index.
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