Senapathi VENKATRAMANAN¹, Sang Yong CHUNG^1*, Seung Yeop LEE² & Namsik PARK^3
1Institute of Environmental Geosciences, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Pukyong National University, 599-1 Daeyeon-dong Nam-gu, Busan 608-737, Republic of Korea,
Tel: (82) 051-629-6626, Fax: (82) 051-629-6623
²HLW Disposal Research Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-353, Korea
³Department of Civil Engineering, Dong-A University, 840 Hadan-dong Saha-gu, Busan 604-717, Korea
^*Corresponding author email: chungsy@pknu.ac.kr, Email: venkatramanansenapathi@gmail.com

ASSESSMENT OF RIVER WATER QUALITY VIA ENVIRONMENTRIC MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL TOOLS AND WATER QUALITY INDEX: A CASE STUDY OF NAKDONG RIVER BASIN, KOREA

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Nakdong River Basin has been extensively studied to assess the overall water quality and to identify the major variables responsible for water quality variations in the basin. A total of 14 sampling points were selected in the riverine network of the River Basin during the year of 2011. Specifically, the temperature, pH, DO, BOD, COD, TP, TOC, TSS, NH₄-N, NO₃-N, PO₄-P, Chl.α and Cl were investigated. Based on the WQI and NWQS, the river quality status for Nakdong River Basin falls under good to moderate class which indicate that, the water is suitable for industries and irrigation. Thus, they may not be suitable for recreational, water supply or fisheries purposes. Environmentric multivariate statistical tools of correlation matrix, factor analysis (FA) and cluster analysis (CA) revealed that the surface water quality was mainly controlled by anthropogenic activities. Therefore, the identification of the main pollution sources in the River Basin will help water authorities make better and more informed decisions on the improvement of Nakdong River water quality.