Assessment Of Spatio-Temporal Variation In Pond Water Quality: A Case Study

The aim of the present study was to assess the spatial and temporal variations in pond water quality of Amritsar district of Punjab. The water quality data was collected during the winter (January 2016) and summer season (May 2016) from eleven different sampling sites. Eighteen water quality parameters, like alkalinity, hardness, electrical conductivity (EC), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), Ca, Mg, NO₃^–, NO₂^–, PO₄^3-, SO₄^2-, etc., were evaluated. The water quality data was then analyzed using multivariate statistical tools including factor analysis, cluster analysis and Pearson correlation. The results of cluster analysis divided the sites into three different clusters on the basis of pollution load during the seasons. Overall the study showed that the water was polluted by anthropogenic activities, like the dumping of municipal and domestic waste and various agricultural activities. The study also revealed that multivariate statistical tools are important for understanding complex data sets for the assessment of water quality.