Abstract
In this paper, we use an integrated approach to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of water quality in the Beni Haroun (BH) dam, the largest surface water resource in Algeria. Several techniques have been employed under the same framework, including the Canadian Council Ministers Environment Water Quality Index (CCME-WQI), principal component analysis and factor analysis (PCA/FA), the K-means clustering, and the ordinary least square (OLS) analysis. A data set of 22 physicochemical parameters has been collected, over a period of 11 years, from three sampling stations: Ain Smara (ST1) and Menia (ST2), both located upstream of “Wadi Rhumel,” and BH dam station (ST3), located at the dam site. The PCA/FA enables the identification of seven key factors that influence significantly BH dam water quality. The average values of CCME indices at the BH dam were 17, 40, 42, and 32 for drinking, irrigation, industry, and aquatic life purposes, respectively, which indicate poor water quality, according to the CCME categorization scheme. Besides, the K-means algorithm has been proven to be a very useful machine learning tool to detect that the major source of BH dam pollution is “Wadi Rhumel.” Finally, OLS analysis, along with the Mann-Kendall test, highlighted the positive trend of BH dam’s water quality.
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Abbreviations
- AI:
-
artificial intelligence
- ALWQI:
-
aquatic life WQI
- ANOVA:
-
analysis of variance
- ANRH:
-
Agence Nationale des Resources Hydrauliques
- BCWQI:
-
British Columbia WQI
- BH:
-
Beni Haroun
- BOD:
-
biochemical oxygen demand
- CA:
-
cluster analysis
- CCME-WQI:
-
Canadian Council Ministers Environments WQI
- CEC:
-
Commission of European Committees
- COD:
-
chemical oxygen demand
- CWQI:
-
Canadian WQI
- DA:
-
discriminant analysis
- DO:
-
dissolved oxygen
- DWAF:
-
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
- DWQI:
-
drinking WQI
- EC:
-
electrical conductivity
- FA:
-
factor analysis
- FAO:
-
Food and Agriculture Organization
- InWQI:
-
industrial WQI
- IWQI:
-
irrigation WQI
- KMO:
-
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
- NSF-WQI:
-
National Sanitation Foundation WQI
- OLS:
-
ordinary least square
- PCA:
-
principal component analysis
- PCs:
-
principal components
- pH:
-
power of hydrogen
- ST1:
-
Ain Smara station
- ST2:
-
Menia station
- ST3:
-
Grarem station
- T:
-
water temperature
- TSS:
-
total suspended solid
- VFs:
-
Varifactors
- WE:
-
Wadi Endja
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- WQI:
-
Water Quality Index
- WR:
-
Wadi Rhumel
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Agence Nationale des Resources Hydrauliques (ANRH) for their assistance in providing the necessary data. They also are grateful to Professor Abderrahmane BOUDOUKHA of the University of Batna, Algeria, for his pertinent information and valuable advice.
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Soltani, A.A., Bermad, A., Boutaghane, H. et al. An integrated approach for assessing surface water quality: Case of Beni Haroun dam (Northeast Algeria). Environ Monit Assess 192, 630 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08572-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08572-z