Aquachem open source Alternative

Question

I have a bulk of water quality data I have to comprehensively analyze and I attempted to use waterloo aquachem 2014.2 software trial version which had numerous hurdles. Considering that and the fact that I cannot afford the full version I went running to vminteq which despite being open source does not produce some relevant plots like piper, box whisker etc.

So I was hoping for an alternative to this software which is open source and does a comprehensive analysis of water quality data. The alternative should have the following (but not limited to) features:

• generate piper diagrams

• mapping of parameter values or trends on shape files

• geochemical speciation of water samples

• various statistical plots

• fully open source (I can't afford any purchases)

• with a proper functional gui

• and should be able to run on Windows 10 operating system

Answer 1

I'm not an expert in this field at all, but maybe Excel/LibreOffice Calc (if you want open source) could be of help if you are willing to adjust your workflow: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/A_Kumar9/post/How_can_I_draw_a_Piper_Diagram/attachment/59d62594c49f478072e9a623/AS%3A272165465722884%401441900711135/download/An+Excel+Macro+for+Generating+Trilinear+Plots.pdf This will show you how to draw piper diagrams in Excel.

https://www.spotzi.com/en/help-center/how-to-import-a-shapefile-into-excel-3d-maps/ You can supposedly import shapefiles into Excel.

https://community.esri.com/thread/46572 This page includes a link to a tool that should allow export of attributes of a shapefile to Excel.

This may not be what you are looking for, but LibreOffice and Excel allow for large amounts of automation if you are willing to invest some time in exchange for it being free. Once you have your requirements fulfilled you will be fully flexible to make changes as opposed to being forced to wait for a software manufacturer.