Application of factor analysis as a tool for water quality management of Tigris River within Mosul City

Abstract EN

This paper focuses on the utilization of factor analysis as a tool for water quality management.

Factor analysis has the ability to reduce a large number of variables and identify a set of dimensions, which can not be easily observed in a large set of variables.

Bimonthly water samples were collected along Tigris river within Mosul city from Sept 1999 to Aug 2000.

Samples were tested for (16) chemical, physical and biochemical parameters.

Factor analysis extracted five factors, which explain more than 83% of the variation in water quality.

The results of the rotated factor loadings showed that rock dissolution has the maximum contribution in water quality variation.

The other sources, which were noticed from the results of the analysis, were runoff, seasonal variations, industrial and domestic discharges.

They contributed -at variable degrees- to such variation.

The study also concluded that factor analysis technique is an efficient tool for water quality management agencies.