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Evaluation of spatial and temporal variation in Karun River water quality during five decades (1968–2014)
Author(s) -
Ahmadmoazzam Mehdi,
Saki Malehi Amal,
Jorfi Sahand,
Ramavandi Bahman,
Ahmadi Mehdi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
environmental quality management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.249
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1520-6483
pISSN - 1088-1913
DOI - 10.1002/tqem.21526
Subject(s) - environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , water quality , sampling (signal processing) , multivariate statistics , spatial variability , cluster (spacecraft) , statistics , mathematics , ecology , geotechnical engineering , filter (signal processing) , computer science , engineering , computer vision , biology , programming language
In the present study, the multivariate statistical technique cluster analysis (CA) is used to evaluate the spatial and temporal variations in the water quality data for the Karun River, which was gathered during 46 years of monitoring (from 1968 to 2014). The data recorded electrical conductivity (EC) in the river at six water monitoring stations along its course. The mean of EC was 972.05 ± 365.466 micromhos per centimeter (μmhos/cm) at the most upstream station and showed an increase to 1458.41 ± 675.048 μmhos/cm at the most downstream of the stations. By using hierarchical CA, the six sampling stations were grouped into three clusters of similar characteristics, which may be a result of different land uses in proximity to the stations. Furthermore, two‐way analysis of variance showed that EC had a significant correlation ( p < 0.001) with the season, and the mean of the pollution depended on the level of the cluster and the season (spring, summer, autumn, and winter).