Evolution of Water Quality in the Una-PE River Basin

Abstract

The quality of aquatic ecosystems is a concern for society, since the interference of water bodies has been notorious, especially those that border large urban centers. Therefore, several parameters have been used to monitor water quality. In this way, the objective was to evaluate the quality of the waters of the Una River basin, Pernambuco, between the years 2001 and 2019. To this end, the values of water temperature (T), hydrogen potential (pH), dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), electrical conductivity (EC), total amount of phosphorus, turbidity and total rainfall volume, available in water quality monitoring reports from river basins from the state of Pernambuco. It can be seen that none of the verified variables showed normal behavior for the trained period. In this way, the tests proposed by Kruskal-Wallis and Nemenyi were used to evaluate the behavior of each parameter. The high values of T, EC, BOD, phosphorus concentrations and turbidity, together with the low DO values found at various times during the years analyzed, indicate an intrusion of sewage (domestic and/or industrial) into the aquatic ecosystem. After a statistical analysis of the indicators, it was concluded that it was not possible to identify improvements in the quality of water in the Una-PE River basin over the last 15 years.