Title: Spatial and temporal variations of water quality in Pallikaranai wetland, Chennai, India

Authors: M. Sridevi Karpagavalli; A. Ramachandran; K. Palanivelu

Addresses: Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research, College of Engineering, Guindy Campus, Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Chennai, 600-025, India ' Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research, College of Engineering, Guindy Campus, Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Chennai, 600-025, India ' Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research, College of Engineering, Guindy Campus, Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Chennai, 600-025, India

Abstract: This paper analysed the spatial-temporal variations of surface water quality of the Pallikaranai wetland, located in the region known as Chennai City. An extensive study pertaining to seasonal variations in nutrients, dissolved carbon, dissolved gases and heavy metals in surface water was studied at 16 locations of Pallikaranai wetland during three seasonal cruises from March 2010 to December 2010. GIS and statistical techniques such as interpolation method (IDW), Pearson correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to evaluate the spatial pattern and variation in water quality of Pallikaranai wetland and to identify pollution sources. The results revealed that there is a remarkable seasonal variation in the analysed parameters which are attributed to the natural sources (monsoon) and anthropogenic activities. PCA resulted in three factors explaining 73.8% of the total variance. Factor 1 exhibited a high correlation with environmental parameters, nutrients and organic carbon representing the influence of seasonal runoff. Factor 2 envisaged heavy metal pollution results from anthropogenic activities. Factor 3 explored moderate correlation with SPM and nutrients.

Keywords: Pallikaranai wetland; interpolation technique; principal component analysis; PCA; water quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2019.098911

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2019 Vol.18 No.1, pp.86 - 106

Accepted: 28 Sep 2018
Published online: 09 Apr 2019 *

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