Assessment of spatio-temporal variations of surface water quality and prioritization of pollution Sources (case Study: Talar Watershed, Mazandaran province)

In this study, spatio-temporal variations and prioritization of pollution sources of 12 surface water quality parameters in Talar Watershed, Iran were studied at six stations during 2003-2011 using One-way ANOVA, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques. The results of One-way ANOVA showed that spatio-temporal variations had significant influences on water quality parameters in the study area. We observed that surface water quality parameters increased during 2003-2011 and Khatirkuh-Doab station had the maximum value and PolShahpour had the minimum value of surface water quality parameters. PCA results indicated that the first three components at Kiakola, PolShahpour, PolSefied-Talar and Paland stations; the first two components at Shirgah-Talar station; the first four components at KhatirkuhDoab station (with the exception of the year 2006-2007 with one first component) first two components, explained spatio-temporal variation of surface water quality parameters. CA results also showed that Kiakola and Shirgah-Talar stations are placed in the first cluster, PolShahpour and Paland stations are set in the second cluster, Khatirkuh-Doab station is put in the third cluster and PolSefied-Talar station is located in the fourth cluster. The results of AHP showed that among pollution sources (lithology, land use change, land use type and mining of river bed) of surface water quality in this watershed, lithology and mining of river bed had the maximum and minimum impact on surface water quality, respectively.