Evaluation of Water Quality in the Lower Huallaga River Watershed using the Grey Clustering Analysis Method

Enrique Lee Huamaní ,Alexi Delgado,Karen Muriel Simon ,Katherine Tineo,Katya Bonilla ,Diego Cuadra

doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2021.0120156

Enrique Lee Huamaní , Alexi Delgado + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2021.0120156

Copy DOI

Abstract

Currently, the evaluation of water quality is a topic of global interest, due to its socio-cultural, environmental and economic importance, but in recent years this quality is deteriorating due to inadequate management in the conservation, disposal and use of water by the competent authorities, private-state entities and the population itself. An alternative to determine the quality of a water body in an integrated manner is the Grey Clustering Method, which was used in this study taking as an indicator the Prati Quality Index, with the objective of making an objective analysis of the quality of the water bodies under study. The case study is the Lower Watershed of the Huallaga River, located between the region of Loreto and San Martin, along which 12 monitoring stations were established to evaluate its surface water quality, through the analysis of 7 parameters: pH, BOD, COD, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Ammonia Nitrogen, Substrates and Nitrates. Finally, it was determined that the water quality of eleven monitoring stations in the Lower Huallaga River Watershed are within the "Uncontaminated" category, while one monitoring station is within the "Highly Contaminated" category of the Prati Index, this due to its proximity to a landfill. The results obtained in this study, could be useful for the authorities responsible for the protection and sustainable conservation of the Huallaga River Watershed, in order to propose appropriate measures to improve its quality, additionally, this study could be a reference for future studies since the proposed method allowed to prioritize the quality level of the water bodies and identify critical areas.

Highlights

The various activities that have been carried out in the lower watershed of the Huallaga River have motivated the evaluation of water quality [1], since this watershed is used to supply the indigenous communities and surrounding urban areas [2].The present study is carried out in the lower Huallaga River Watershed, located in the districts of Loreto and San Martin in which twelve monitoring points have been taken from the "Participatory Monitoring Report on Surface Water Quality in the Huallaga River Watershed" [2], which were taken into account due to the proximity of some activity carried out within the area of the lower Huallaga River Watershed
The objective of this study is to evaluate the water quality in the lower Huallaga river watershed using the Grey Clustering methodology [5], which allows us to fully assess the 7 parameters of the Prati index [3] considering 12 monitoring points that cover the area of the lower Huallaga river watershed [2]
It was possible to obtain the results of the evaluation of the water quality in the lower basin of the Huallaga river, which from the monitoring points P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P7, P8, P9, P11 and P12 shown in Table XVI, have the category level "Unpolluted", these have the lowest water quality rating of the Prati index

Summary

Introduction

The various activities that have been carried out in the lower watershed of the Huallaga River have motivated the evaluation of water quality [1], since this watershed is used to supply the indigenous communities and surrounding urban areas [2].The present study is carried out in the lower Huallaga River Watershed, located in the districts of Loreto and San Martin in which twelve monitoring points have been taken from the "Participatory Monitoring Report on Surface Water Quality in the Huallaga River Watershed" [2], which were taken into account due to the proximity of some activity carried out within the area of the lower Huallaga River Watershed. The water quality evaluation was done using the Grey Clustering methodology based on the gray system theory [5], which due to the scarcity of data uses an artificial intelligence approach [6]. This methodology, because it solves problems with scarce data, allows its application to other fields of research [7]. The objective of this study is to evaluate the water quality in the lower Huallaga river watershed using the Grey Clustering methodology [5], which allows us to fully assess the 7 parameters of the Prati index [3] considering 12 monitoring points that cover the area of the lower Huallaga river watershed [2]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion