Assessment and Spatiotemporal Variation Analysis of Water Quality in the Zhangweinan River Basin, China

Abstract

Abstract Spatiotemporal variation analysis of water quality and identification of water pollution sources in river basins is very important for water resources protection and sustainable utilization. In this study, fuzzy comprehensive analysis and two statistical methods including cluster analysis and seasonal Kendall test method were used to evaluate the spatiotemporal variation of water quality in the Zhangweinan River basin. The results for spatial cluster analysis and assessment on water quality at 19 monitoring sites indicated that water quality in the Zhangweinan River basin could be classified into two regions according to pollution levels. One is the Zhang River basin located in northwest of the Zhangweinan River basin where water quality is good. Another one includes the Wei River and eastern plain of the Zhangweinan River basin, and the water pollution in this region is serious, where the pollutants from point sources flow into the river and the water quality changes greatly. The results of temporal cluster analysis and seasonal Kendall test indicated that the sampling periods may be classified into three periods during 2002-2009 according to water quality. Results of temporal cluster analysis and seasonal Kendall test indicated that the study periods may be classified into three periods and two different trends was detected during the period of 2002-2009. The first period was the year of 2002-2003, during which water quality had deteriorated and serious pollution was observed in the Wei River basin and eastern plain of the Zhangweinan River basin. The second period was the year of 2004-2006, during which water quality became better. The year of 2007-2009 is the third period, during which water quality had been improved greatly. Despite that water quality in the Zhangweinan River basin had been improved during the period of 2004-2009, water quality in the Wei River (southwestern part of the basin), the Wei Canal River and the Zhangweixin River (eastern plain of the basin) is still poor. These results provide may useful information for better pollution control strategies in the Zhangweinan River basin.