Assessment of Water Quality Parameters on Uzuncayır Dam Lake Using Principal Component and Cluster Analysis

Abstract

This study was carried out to monitor water quality in Uzuncayir Dam Lake from May 2013 to March 2014 based on monthly sample monitoring from ten stations. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, biological oxygen demand (BOD), electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, total alkalinity, specific conductance, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), orthophosphate-phosphorus (PO 4 -P), ammonium (NH 4 ), nitrate (NO 3 ), nitrite (NO 2 ), chlorophyll a (Chl-a) parameters were investigated during study. Data obtained were evaluated by using multivariate statistical analysis, cluster analysis, principal component analysis and factor analysis. Uzuncayir Dam Lake is defined as a hard water lake because of the high pH and high electrical conductivity and total solids content as the result of the high content of dissolved anions and cations. Principal components (PCA) analysis revealed in two different clusters to the similarities among the stations reflected different physico-chemical properties and the level of pollution in Uzuncayir Dam Lake. Three potential factors were determined explaining 100% of the total variation of the data. In component 1, 17.7 % of all variation had Mg, NH 4 and NO 2 . According to the component 2 and 3 the results showed that 34.95 % of all variation stem from agricultural drainage and nutrient, from physical parameters of 68.2 %. In analyses of cluster, one group (10 station) was found to affect directly the activities of domestic and agricultural land. Based on the Surface Water Quality Management (A and B group), it was concluded that Uzuncayir Dam Lake had high quality and slightly contaminated and the appropriate structure for many activities such as agricultural irrigation, drinking water supply, trout and other fish production.