Multivariate Analysis of Seasonal Variation in Groundwater Quality within Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This research work was aimed at analyzing the data of the seasonal variation of groundwater quality in the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) environment using descriptive statistics and a covariance matrix analysis of the data set for both rainy and dry seasons to see the effect of the water quality parameters on each other. Cluster analysis was also carried out on the data set to check the level of the Euclidean distance between the water quality parameters. The data used for this analysis was secondary data obtained from groundwater sources (ten wells) within the University environment during the rainy and dry seasons respectively. It was observed that there is a slight variation in the quality of groundwater in the FUNAAB environment as regards the dry season and the rainy season. In the result of the cluster analysis, the water quality parameters are clustered into seven groups for the dry season and eight groups for the rainy season which indicate that the dissimilarities in the data set increase during the rainy season. It was observed that for the dry season covariance data, 36% of the values have a negative relationship within themselves and 64% has a positive relationship, as compared to the rainy season data which possesses a 31% negative relationship and a 69% positive relation. This implies that there is only a 5% variation in the entire data set of the dry season and the raining season as regards the interdependence of the water quality parameters on each other.

Keywords: Groundwater, Physico-Chemical, Water Quality, Wells