Assessment of spatio-temporal variations in surface water quality of Ghaggar River (North-Western, India) utilized for drinking and agricultural purposes

Abstract

In the present study, statistical analyses (descriptive and principal component analysis) were applied to Ghaggar River surface water data set monitored in the month of June 2006 and 2007 to check spatio-temporal variations in water quality. From these, two summer observations were taken into consideration because in summer season, high concentrations are observed for different water constituents. The various physico-chemical constituents like pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), temperature, Cl^-, HCO₃^-, CO₃^2-, Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, F^-, SO₄^2- and PO₄^3- were analyzed. Statistical results revealed that water quality variables were totally different during the two summer observations.

Keywords: Principal component analysis, spatio-temporal variations, water quality, summer season.