Assessment of temporal and spatial variations in surface water quality using multivariate statistical techniques: a case study of Nenjiang River basin, China
来源期刊：中南大学学报(英文版)2015年第10期
论文作者：ZHENG Li-yan YU Hong-bing WANG Qi-shan
文章页码：3770 - 3780
Key words：Nenjiang River basin; water quality; hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA); principal component analysis (PCA); factor analysis
Abstract: Assessment of temporal and spatial variations in surface water quality is important to evaluate the health of a watershed and make necessary management decisions to control current and future pollution of receiving water bodies. In this work, surface water quality data for 12 physical and chemical parameters collected from 10 sampling sites in the Nenjiang River basin during the years (2012-2013) were analyzed. The results show that river water quality has significant temporal and spatial variations. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) grouped 12 months into three periods (LF, MF and HF) and classified 10 monitoring sites into three regions (LP, MP and HP) based on the similarity of water quality characteristics. The principle component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA) was used to recognize the factors or origins responsible for temporal and spatial water quality variations. Temporal and spatial PCA/FA revealed that the Nenjiang River water chemistry was strongly affected by rock/water interaction, hydrologic processes and anthropogenic activities. This work demonstrates that the application of HCA and PCA/FA has achieved meaningful classification based on temporal and spatial criteria.
ZHENG Li-yan(郑力燕), YU Hong-bing(于宏兵), WANG Qi-shan(王启山)
(College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China)
Abstract:Assessment of temporal and spatial variations in surface water quality is important to evaluate the health of a watershed and make necessary management decisions to control current and future pollution of receiving water bodies. In this work, surface water quality data for 12 physical and chemical parameters collected from 10 sampling sites in the Nenjiang River basin during the years (2012-2013) were analyzed. The results show that river water quality has significant temporal and spatial variations. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) grouped 12 months into three periods (LF, MF and HF) and classified 10 monitoring sites into three regions (LP, MP and HP) based on the similarity of water quality characteristics. The principle component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA) was used to recognize the factors or origins responsible for temporal and spatial water quality variations. Temporal and spatial PCA/FA revealed that the Nenjiang River water chemistry was strongly affected by rock/water interaction, hydrologic processes and anthropogenic activities. This work demonstrates that the application of HCA and PCA/FA has achieved meaningful classification based on temporal and spatial criteria.
Key words:Nenjiang River basin; water quality; hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA); principal component analysis (PCA); factor analysis
