Multivariate statistical evaluation of heavy metals in the surface water sources of Jia Bharali river basin, North Brahmaputra plain, India

Applied Water Science, Aug 2016

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of surfacewater sources in the Jia Bharali river basin and adjoining areas of the Himalayan foothills with respect to heavy elements viz. (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) by hydrochemical and multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). This study presents the first ever systematic analysis on toxic elements of water samples collected from 35 different surface water sources in both the dry and wet seasons for a duration of 2 hydrological years (2009–2011). Varimax factors extracted by principal component analysis indicates anthropogenic (domestic and agricultural run-off) and geogenic influences on the trace elements. Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped 35 surfacewater sources into three statistically significant clusters based on the similarity of water quality characteristics. This study illustrates the usefulness of multivariate statistical techniques for analysis and interpretation of complex data sets, and in water quality assessment, identification of pollution sources/factors and understanding temporal/spatial variations in water quality for effective surfacewater quality management.

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Multivariate statistical evaluation of heavy metals in the surface water sources of Jia Bharali river basin, North Brahmaputra plain, India

Multivariate statistical evaluation of heavy metals in the surface water sources of Jia Bharali river basin, North Brahmaputra plain, India Nayan J. Khound 0 1 Krishna G. Bhattacharyya 0 1 0 Department of Chemistry, Gauhati University , Guwahati , India 1 & Nayan J. Khound The aim of this study was to assess the quality of surfacewater sources in the Jia Bharali river basin and adjoining areas of the Himalayan foothills with respect to heavy elements viz. (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) by hydrochemical and multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). This study presents the first ever systematic analysis on toxic elements of water samples collected from 35 different surface water sources in both the dry and wet seasons for a duration of 2 hydrological years (2009-2011). Varimax factors extracted by principal component analysis indicates anthropogenic (domestic and agricultural run-off) and geogenic influences on the trace elements. Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped 35 surfacewater sources into three statistically significant clusters based on the similarity of water quality characteristics. This study illustrates the usefulness of multivariate statistical techniques for analysis and interpretation of complex data sets, and in water quality assessment, identification of pollution sources/factors and understanding temporal/spatial variations in water quality for effective surfacewater quality management. Heavy metals; Principal component; Hierarchical cluster; Brahmaputra plain; Surfacewater source; Jia Bharali river basin - Department of Chemistry, Digboi College, Tinsukia, India Introduction Trace metals attributing as common pollutants are found to be widely distributed in the river catchments originating from natural sources and processes as chemical weathering, soil erosion, fallout of aerosols from marine, volcanic or arid soil sources. However, as a result of human inputs and activities (Merian 1991) the level of these metals in the environment has increased tremendously. Due to simplicity the univariate statistical analysis has been generally used to treat trace element data in groundwater (Helena et al. 2000) . However, multivariate analysis such as principle component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis is widely used to explain the correlation amongst a large number of variables in terms of a small number of underlying factors without losing much information (Meglen 1992; Ogwoeleka 2015; Pazand 2016; Qian et al. 2016) . This method can also help in measuring natural associations between samples and/or variables (Wenning and Erickson 1994) and thus highlight the information which is not available at first glance. For this study, lower Jia Bharali catchment and adjoining areas in central part of North Brahmaputra Plain (NBP) was selected which is characterized by more than 800 m thick older and younger Alluvium deposited by the west flowing Brahmaputra river and the south flowing trans Himalayan rivers (Khound Nayan et al. 2013) . The river regime is highly dynamic with frequent channel changes and copious sand deposition. Average sediment load carried by these rivers are coarse, facilitating easy percolation and recharge of groundwater regime. Published reports (Chakrapani 2005; Singh et al. 2005; Jameel and Hussain 2007) reveal that most of the Indian rivers are carriers of untreated sewage, industrial effluent and runoff from agricultural and urban land to the surface water bodies present in their basins. Due to the absence of industrial zone and large scale irrigation projects the surface and ground water regime of the study area are expected to be free from such condition and bear a pristine signature of the natural environment. The people in the Jia Bharali river basin seldom use the surface water for drinking as well as for various household purposes including irrigation of crops, rearing of poultry and fish, etc. The population of the basin mainly consists of farmers and fishermen who depend on the surface water sources for their livelihood. In this context, the major objectives of this study were to (1) determine natural associations between surfacewater samples and metallic variables; (2) investigate the spatial and temporal variation of trace metal composition of the surfacewater sources and, (3) demonstrate the usefulness of the statistical analysis to interpret the trace element composition of the surfacewater sources of Jia Bharali river basin. Materials and methods Study area The Jia Bharali catchment is bounded by longitudes 92o00/-93o25/E and latitudes 26o39/-28o00/N. The drainage system of north Brahmaputra plain, N E India is made up of a large number of river systems flowing from Arunachal Himalaya in the north and debouching into the Brahmaputra in the south. It is an actively subsiding foreland basin with river regime bearing neotectonic changes and catchment area tectonics (Phukon (...truncated)


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Nayan J. Khound, Krishna G. Bhattacharyya. Multivariate statistical evaluation of heavy metals in the surface water sources of Jia Bharali river basin, North Brahmaputra plain, India, Applied Water Science, 2016, pp. 1-10, DOI: 10.1007/s13201-016-0453-9