Abstract: Thirty-one water samples from northern Anhui Province were collected and analyzed. The descriptive statistics method and Piper trilinear diagrams were used to study the hydro-chemical characteristics and distribution of groundwater in northern Anhui Province, and the relationship between the main ions and the trace elements were studied. The single factor evaluation and integrated evaluation methods were used to evaluate the quality of the groundwater. The results show that the cations of the groundwater in this area are mainly Ca2+ and Na+, while the anions are mainly HCO3-, and the chemical types are mainly HCO3-Ca and HCO3-Na. The results of the single factor evaluation of the groundwater quality indicate the indicators include TDS (total dissolved solids), NO3－, F－, NO2－, and NH4+. The results of integrated environmental quality assessment show that the quality of the groundwater samples from this area are invariably of categories Ⅱ and Ⅲ.

Key words: groundwater, hydro-chemical characteristics, water quality assessment, northern Anhui Province