www.ccsenet.org/jsd Journal of Sustainable Development Vol. 4, No.

2; April 2011

Evaluation of Urban Lentic Water Quality Using Multivariate

Statistical Analysis
Debasis Guha
Department of MCA, Dr. B.C.Roy Engineering College, Post- Fuljhore
Jemua Road, Durgapur-713206, WB, India
Tel: 91-94-3467-3446 E-mail: dguha69@rediffmail.com

S.Mandal
Department of Zoology, B.B. College, Asansol-713303, Burdwan, WB, India
E-mail: drsmandal@gmail.com

A. Dutta
Department of MBA, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur-713209, WB, India
E-mail: avijand@gmail.com

Received: December 17, 2010 Accepted: February 24, 2011 doi:10.5539/jsd.v4n2p189

Abstract
The present study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the factors that significantly influence the
surface water quality parameters in the industrial town of Asansol, India. Composite sampling of water was
conducted at 5 major lakes spread across the city. This study also shows the effects of urbanization and
industrialization on the fresh water storage system. Not only that the results of this study clearly indicates the
effects of coal mining on the ground water quality.
Keywords: Water chemistry, Chemometric, Cluster Analysis, PCA, Limnology, Urbanization, Asansol
This is a part of the Ph.D work of the first author under the direct supervision of second and third author
1. Introduction
The rapid urbanization coupled with increasing discharge from industrial, domestic and agricultural actions into
the surface water regime, is a serious cause of concern. Such water bodies are essential in most areas as they
improve the local ecology and harbors diverse forms of aquatic biodiversity. Such water bodies are also in many
places used as source of water for domestic purposes. Thus regular monitoring and assessment is required in
order to maintain the water quality within the human consumption levels and much within the standards. The
water quality testing in India, in most places is done only to knows the parameter values and minimum statistical
analysis and interpretations are conducted. These data may contain several errors that may prevent them from
being satisfactorily interpreted and conclusions drawn. The data are mostly not normally distributed, noisy, has
outliers and may have autocollinearity, etc (Prans 2007). In order to reduce and do away with such draw backs
the statistical analysis of collected water quality data using multivariate analysis should be conducted. Among
the multivariate statistical techniques, Correlation Analysis, FA (Factor Analysis) with PCA (Principal
Component Analysis) and CA (Cluster Analysis) has been used for proper identification, clustering, grouping,
assessment and evaluation of water quality data as available in literature. (Zes, 38.2005, Prans 2007, Yeung 1999,
Raghunath 2002).
Chemo metrics is the science of relating measurements made on a chemical system or process to the state of the
system via application of mathematical or statistical methods. 38. Chemometric research spans a wide area of
different methods which can be applied in chemistry. There are techniques for collecting good data (optimization
of experimental parameters, design of experiments, multivariate analysis or multivariate statistics, calibration,
signal processing) and for getting information from these data (statistics, pattern recognition, modeling,
structure-property-relationship estimations). Application of chemometric techniques,viz, cluster analysis (CA),
discriminate analysis (DA), factor analysis (FA)/principal component analysis (PCA), partial least-squares (PLS),
etc, for interpretation of the complex databases offers a reliable and better understanding of the hydrochemistry
and hydro-chemical processes. These techniques also permit identification of the possible factors/sources that
influence the water systems and are responsible for the variations in water quality, which thus offers valuable
tool for developing appropriate strategies for effective management of the water resources (WHO, 1984).
The PCA is a useful tool and is principally used for the reduction of a large number of variables into smaller
Components that may predict the variations. PCA estimates Eigenvalues (orthogonal principal components)
under a newly created coordinate system and can explain nearly all of the variability. The identified components

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represent a different account for the observed variation, which in some cases may not be measurable and
quantifiable. The importance of the PC reduces from the 1st to the last and are selected based on their
Eigenvalues (>1) and Scree plot diagram.
Cluster analysis on the other hand is a statistical tool that segregates the variables into homogeneous groups that
have similar properties among themselves and differs from variables in other clusters. The results of such
analysis are represented in the form of a tree-diagram, know as a Dendogram. With increase in water quality
degradation and lack of regular monitoring program, the water bodies in the city of Asansol are heading towards
disaster. In view of the present situation and evaluation of a comprehensive monitoring plan, the present study
was taken up. The overall aim of the investigation was to analyze the water quality data of the major lentic
bodies in the study area using tool like Correlation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis,
and hence reduce the number of data and similar groups/clusters creating, that may help efficient monitoring and
identifying the pollution sources. Major objectives were: To study the water quality parameters of major lakes in
the study area. To apply statistical methods including chemometric techniques, such as PCA and CA to interpret
surface water quality data bases and identification of the human influences To reduce the number of water
quality parameters for efficient assessment of urban surface water resources. To identify the parameters which
have strong correlation, and thus identify one of them for the analysis and prediction of the related ones
2. Material & Methodology
2.1 Sampling and Data Collection
Water samples were collected from five major water bodies during summer (March – June); Monsoon
(July–October) and winter (November–February) seasons. Physico-chemical and biological characteristics were
estimated. Sampling locations in study area is shown in Figure-1. Water analyses, including the sample
collection and preservation, were carried out according to the standard methods (APHA 1999). Each water body
was sampled at least nine times during this period. The studied parameters included pH, Temperature (T),
Turbidity (TU), Conductivity (EC), Total dissolve solids (TDS), Total suspended solids (TSS), Total solids (TS),
Dissolve oxygen (DO), Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), Total hardness (TH), Total alkalinity (TA),
Chloride (Cl), Sulphate(SO4), Phosphate (PO4), Nitrate (NO2), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Total Coli form
(TC), Gross Primary productivity (GPP), Community respiration (CR) and Photosynthesis : Respiration (PR).
2.2 Data Computation
The result of laboratory analysis were stored in an EDMS (electronic database management system) prepared
using MS-Excel. The rows consisted of the analyzed water quality parameters (variables) whereas the columns
were of sample replicates. The data base was then transferred to Statistical package software, SPSS-12 for
further analysis. All chemometric analysis including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis
(CA) were performed by the SPSS package.
PCA was used for orthogonal linear transformation that of the experimental data to new Coordinate system such
that the greatest variance by any projection of the data comes to lie on the first coordinate (called the first
principal component), the second greatest variance on the second coordinate, and so on. It was also used for
dimensionality reduction in a data set by retaining those characteristics of the data set that contribute most to its
Variance, by keeping lower-order principal components and ignoring higher-order ones..
3. Results & Discussion
The computed data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and subsequent correlation analysis;
followed by chemometric techniques. The correlation coefficient, one of the most widespread and useful
statistics, is a single numeral that describes the degree of association amongst two variables under study. The
Table 1 gives the descriptive statistics of the water quality parameters, whose correlation map is given in
Figure-2. The basic statistics of the physical and chemical analysis data for the surface water, groundwater and
soil samples is summarized in Table I. The correlation matrix of the groundwater samples (Table II) exhibits
excellent positive correlation values (r 2 > 115.0.8) between EC and TDS, Na, Cl and SO4. This is due to the fact
that conductivity depends on total dissolved solids and the main constituents of TDS in water are Na, Cl and SO4.
A complete correlation (r 2 = 1.0) was observed between ECandTDSas theTDSvalues have been derived from
the EC.Asignificant positive correlation (r 2 > 0.6) between Na and HCO3 indicates that the main water type in
samples is Na-HCO3. Also, high correlation (r 2 > 0.6) between Na and Cl, Mg and Cl, Na and SO4, Mg and
SO4, Pb and Cl, Pb and SO4, Ni and Cl, and Ni and SO4 indicates that these soluble salts are predominant in
water samples. Significant positive correlations of NO3 with SO4, PO4, Ca and Cr suggest their identical source
of origin in the watershed. These are mainly emanated from anthropogenic activities such as application of
phosphate, sulfate and nitrate fertilizers, and discharge of industrial effluents, such as tanneries.
The Eigenvalues, Percent of total variation explained, cumulative percent of total variance and rotated loadings
for day time data is given in Table 2. This table gives the relation of the factors with the water quality
parameters. It is observed that the first factor explains the highest percent of the entire variance. The subsequent
factors have diminishing variance to explain the water quality. Although all factors having value >1 can be
thought to be significant, but this significance diminishes after the first three factors. The first six factors explain

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88% of the variance, whereas the rest fifteen factors accounts for only 12% of the observed variance. Based on
the strength of the Eigenvalues and the Scree Plots, only the first six factors were selected for the present study.
In the Scree Plot, those points on the vertical limb (steep portion), accounts for the majority of variance, whereas
those on the horizontal, flat limb accounts very less for water quality prediction, hence they were ignored. The
Rotated Component Matrix, using Varimax Rotation for the six factors is shown in Table 2. An absolute value
of >0.5 has been chosen to demonstrate strong association (Zeng et al 2005). The first Eigenvalue is 140.6.79
and explains 32.32 % of the total variance. The second is 3.80 and explains 18.08 % of total variance and third is
3.63 and explains 17.30% of total variance. The fourth Eigenvalue is 1.71 and explains 8.15% of the total
variance. The fifth is 1.52 and explains 7.23% of total variance and sixth is 1.03 and explains 4.91% of total
variance. The first six accounts for a total of 88.01 % of variance and were identified as:
Component 1: EC, TDS, TSS, TS, Total Hardness, Total Alkalinity, Ca, Mg, TC
Component 2: Temperature, Turbidity, Dissolve Oxygen, P: R
Component 3: Gross primary productivity, Community respiration
Component 4: pH, Chloride, Phosphate, Nitrate.
Component 5: TSS, BOD, P: R
Component 6: SO42-
The first component is characterized by about similar loading (>0.8) of Total dissolve solids, Total solids, Total
hardness, Calcium & Magnesium. Moderate loading of Total .alkalinity and lower loading of Total suspended
solids and Total Coli form.
Variable D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
pH -0.6434
T -0.7665
Tu -0.9402
EC
TDS
TSS 0.6796
Ts
DO -0.5629
BOD 0.8029
TH
TA
Cl -0.6524
SO4 -0.9336
PO4 -0.8574
NO3 -0.8576
Ca
Mg
TC
GPP 0.9097
CR 0.9729
PR 0.5436 0.5224

The relationship between PC 1 (which explained 55.4% of the total variance) and PA 2 (Which explained a
further 22.9%) is shown, along with graphical representations of the contributions of the original variables to
both PC 1 and PC 2. For example, EYEHD has 157.a small contribution to PC 1, as seen from its small positive
component on the PC 1 axis, but a large contribution to PC 2, as seen from its large positive component on the
PC 2 axis. These graphical representations of the contributions of the original variables to the PC axes are

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normalized on the graph to an arbitrary, convenient scale, and reflect the relative values of the component score
coefficients.
4. Conclusion
This study clearly indicates that the lentic water bodies in Asansol Raniganj area is already Remain below the
standards of the drinking water qualities. Not only that even some times it is always below the human use
qualities. This method of water quality judgments can be introduced in all the urbanized lentic water body which
helps to assess the quality of Water for human use.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the authorities of Asansol Municipal Corporation for giving permission in the
sampling of waters from different storage systems. Authors are also thankful to the Director National Institute of
Technology, Durgapur for using their 171. 175. laboratory
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Table 1. Summarized descriptive statistics based on experimental data of water quality parameters of five lakes
in Asansol

Standard
Water Quality Parameters Units Code Minimum Maximum Mean
Deviation
pH pH pH 7.10 9.40 8.3467 0.68751
Temperature (0C) T 21.00 31.00 26.6200 3.60321
Turbidity (NTU) TU 3.00 52.00 22.5333 16.84325
Electrical Conductivity µmho/cm EC 389.00 3,144.00 1,333.8000 881.94260
Total Dissolve Solids mg/l TDS 45.00 1,831.00 668.8667 600.57185
Total Suspended Solids mg/l TSS 79.00 2,319.00 711.7333 605.48050
Total Solids mg/l TS 187.00 3,218.00 1,380.6000 1,003.91205
Dissolve Oxygen mg/l DO 1.89 8.54 5.3413 1.81975
BOD mg/l BOD 8.50 218.35 49.4867 54.91353
T Hardness mg/l TH 128.00 926.00 535.8000 234.80028
T Alkalinity mg/l TA 127.00 386.00 240.3333 81.00676
Chloride mg/l Cl 5.00 117.00 31.5333 29.68373
Sulphate mg/l SO4 1.23 4.60 2.1547 0.86163
Phosphate mg/l PO4 0.93 2.98 1.9227 0.64864
Nitrate mg/l NO2 1.78 5.21 3.3100 1.06626
Calcium mg/l Ca 13.00 170.00 52.7333 40.69304
Magnesium mg/l Mg 7.00 89.00 27.0000 22.64950
MPN/100
Total Coliform TC 19.00 433.00 248.6667 141.56708
ml
Gross Primary Productivity GPP 132.00 252.00 200.9333 35.58585
Community Respiration CR 94.00 210.00 138.5333 44.49537
Photosynthesis: -
PR 0.54 1.80 0.9942 0.43054
Respiration

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Table 2. Results of Principal Component Analysis showing Eigenvectors of extracted components (>1), Rotated
using Varimax method with Kaiser Normalization

Variable D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
pH -0.4562 0.2688 0.2928 -0.6434 0.1185 -0.2683
T -0.2705 -0.7665 -0.1385 0.0193 -0.4801 0.1423
Tu -0.1059 -0.9402 -0.0457 0.1465 -0.0034 0.1500
EC -0.5917 -0.4226 0.4206 0.2983 -0.2519 0.1910
TDS -0.8969 -0.2320 0.2781 0.0125 -0.1047 0.0620
TSS -0.5730 0.1070 -0.2145 0.1718 0.6796 0.2877
Ts -0.8821 -0.0743 0.0370 0.1111 0.3473 0.2107
DO 0.4197 -0.5629 0.2454 -0.1900 -0.1817 -0.1578
BOD 0.0313 0.2330 0.2459 -0.0679 0.8029 -0.2241
TH -0.8539 -0.2824 0.1376 -0.2620 -0.1265 -0.0925
TA -0.7454 -0.0300 -0.0791 0.2259 -0.0815 -0.1436
Cl -0.1963 -0.1493 0.4484 -0.6524 -0.2817 -0.0126
SO4 -0.2412 0.1542 0.0315 0.0978 0.1447 -0.9336
PO4 0.2532 0.1010 -0.2794 -0.8574 0.1565 0.1285
NO3 0.1585 -0.0226 0.3433 -0.8576 -0.0547 0.0712
Ca -0.8498 0.0665 0.0677 -0.0614 -0.0922 -0.4664
Mg -0.8261 0.0972 0.1335 -0.0079 0.1345 -0.4038
TC -0.5397 -0.4540 0.2361 -0.3473 0.4093 -0.1447
GPP -0.1473 -0.0813 0.9097 -0.2697 0.1294 -0.0778
CR -0.0801 0.0389 0.9729 -0.0541 0.0281 -0.0209
PR 0.2836 0.5436 -0.3049 0.0105 0.5224 -0.1269
Eigenvalues 6.7880 3.7959 3.6332 1.7120 1.5185 1.0329
Variability (%) 32.3239 18.0757 17.3011 8.1525 7.2309 4.9187
Cumulative % 32.3239 50.3996 67.7007 75.8532 83.0842 88.0029

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Table 3. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Matrix based on experimental data of water quality parameters of five
lakes in Asansol.
TD TS BO SO PO NO GP
T TU EC S S DO D TH TA Cl 4 4 2 Ca Mg P CR PR
-0. -0. 0.0 0.3 -0.
0.1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.0
p 219 290 69 54 125
482 932 436 796 459 880 657 949 369 298 391 573 748
H 3 4 0 3 1
0.5 0.4 -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.7 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.0
40 09 219 550 272 179 092 122 134 805
934 091 692 378 446 408 199
T 9 4 1 7 7 5 1 9 2 2
0.5 0.2 -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.0 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.0
T 34 77 280 238 199 174 081 110 072 501
403 940 417 338 214 129
U 8 0 9 3 2 4 3 8 9 3
0.8 -0. -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.1 0.1 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
E 08 316 063 539 146 595
799 886 781 405 318 956 841 672 992
C 7 2 7 7 1 1
T -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.3 0.9 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.7 0.7 0.3 0.3
D 073 135 350 499
858 035 130 856 153 235 602 457 793 072
S 3 0 2 4
T -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.3 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.3
S 466 312 071 318 091 171
679 527 949 123 727 199 235
S 2 7 7 8 0 3
-0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0. -0.
0.1 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.1
D 307 084 297 041 267 309 164
793 218 565 658 303
O 9 6 9 2 1 9 7
B -0. -0. -0.
0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3
O 079 164 096
344 473 412 630 458 645 312 639
D 4 0 1
-0. -0.
0.4 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.8 0.7 0.3 0.2
T 104 556
816 320 913 715 300 455 046 087
H 0 5
-0. -0. -0. -0.
0.1 0.3 0.6 0.5 0.0
T 345 401 010 035
475 506 012 307 372
A 4 9 5 4
-0. -0.
0.2 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.6 0.4
046 347
933 563 328 362 046 800
Cl 5 1
-0. -0.
0.6 0.6 0.1 0.0 0.2
S 219 191
216 014 167 741 251
O4 7 9
-0. -0. -0. -0.
0.6 0.2
P 260 237 084 201
903 516
O4 5 1 3 4
-0. -0. -0.
0.5 0.3
N 073 042 105
145 434
O2 6 9 6
-0.
0.9 0.2 0.1
C 257
113 045 458
a 4
-0.
0.2 0.2
M 182
708 206
g 3
-0.
0.5 0.2
T 283
194 862
C 2
G -0.
0.8
P 224
906
P 7
-0.
C 335
R 6

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Figure 2. Correlation Map showing association between surface water quality parameters

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Figure 1. Map of study area showing sampling locations

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Figure 3.

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