Assessment of Tigris River Water Quality Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques

The present study uses the multivariate statistical techniques by applying the Factor Analysis (Principle component method) to explain the observed water quality data of Tigris river within Baghdad city. The water quality was analyzed at eleven different sites, along the river, over a period of one year (2017) using 20 water quality parameters. Five factors were identified by factor analysis which was responsible from the 72.291% of the total variance of the water quality in the Tigris river. The first factor called the pollution factor explained 34.387% of the total variance and the second factor called the surface runoff and erosion factor explained 11.875% of the total variance. While, the third, fourth, and fifth factors explained 10.213%, 8.861% and 6.956% of the total variance and called pH, Silica and nutrient factors, respectively. Multivariate statistical techniques can be effective methods to aid water resources managers understand complex nature of water quality issues and determine the priorities to sustain water quality

Hydrochemistry and water quality of shallow groundwater in the Tikrit area of Salah Al Din Province, Iraq

Abstract Salah Al-Din Provence is an active agriculture and population region. One of its primary water sources is groundwater, which suffers from a lack of information regarding water quality and hydrochemistry. In order to study those missing variables, 27 samples from wells of shallow tubes were collected for analyzing the relevant physicochemical indices that help to produce the Schoeller index, Piper diagram, and Gibbs plot. Piper diagram revealed a hydrochemistry behavior of different values along with the groundwater samples. The chemistry of wells was controlled primarily by the evaporation process according to the Gibbs plot. The values of the Schoeller index of the studied samples stated that 59% of them have disequilibrium in Chloro-Alkaline due to their negative obtained values while the rest of them produced positive estimates, which indicates an exchange reaction of cation–anion basic domination. It was concluded that carbonate and silicate weathering, as well as evaporation, controlled the region’ s hydrochemistry. Using Water Quality Index, groundwater was evaluated for use as drinking water. While using Sodium Adsorption Ratio, Sodium percentage, Residual Sodium Carbonate, Magnesium Hazard, and US salinity diagram were all used for estimating the same water’ s suitability for irrigation. All of those indicators, as well as the Gibbs ratio, show that all 27 samples were unsuitable for both studied usage. In addition, those results indicate that evaporation is a major problem for groundwater in this area. Finally, using cluster analysis it was concluded that there are two types of similarities that indicate different levels of pollution in groundwater