Title: Spatio-temporal analysis of the Karun River water quality

Authors: Mojtaba Moravej; Iman Karimirad; Kumars Ebrahimi

Addresses: Water Resources Engineering Section, Department of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran ' Water Resources Engineering Section, Department of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran ' Water Resources Engineering Section, Department of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Abstract: The spatio-temporal variations of the water quality of the Karun River using national sanitation foundation water quality index (NSFWQI) are analysed in this paper using time series analysis and geographic information system (GIS). Monthly data including pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total solids (TS), PO₄³⁻, NO₃⁻, turbidity and fecal coliform are analysed for 2007-2012. Calculated NSFWQI time series during the study period shows that the water quality of the river lies in the medium class. The results of time series analysis show that periodicity and trend are not significant in the majority of stations. The spatial analysis results demonstrate that the water quality in Ahwaz urban area is slightly poorer than in the rest of the river. Overall, the spatio-temporal distribution of the NSFWQI values indicates that changes are negligible and show the balance between the pollutants input and self-purification capacity of the river.

Keywords: augmented Dickey-Fuller test; ADF; ARMA model; geographic information system; GIS; Karun River; Mann-Kendall test; national sanitation foundation water quality index; NSFWQI; Şen's innovative trend analysis; spatio-temporal analysis; stationarity test; time series analysis; water quality index.

DOI: 10.1504/IJW.2018.093669

International Journal of Water, 2018 Vol.12 No.3, pp.208 - 223

Received: 15 Aug 2016
Accepted: 17 Oct 2017
Published online: 31 Jul 2018 *

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