Water Quality Parameters and Monitoring Soft Surface Water Quality Using Statistical Approaches

Abstract

Water is the matrix of life and is indispensable on Earth. Water has a multitude of applications and all known life forms depend on it. Therefore, water quality is important for all of us. Water quality can be represented by a set of physical, chemical, biological and bacteriological characteristics. These parameters allow water to be classified in multiple categories leading to its use for a specific purpose. This chapter establishes the connections between external causes and their effect on water quality parameters. In order to provide information on water quality, different Water Quality Index (WQI) models can be used. In order to study the association between water quality parameters, several correlation coefficients have been developed. For a coherent statistical approach, we have used Pearson and Spearman correlations. In order to exemplify the manner in which WQI can be calculated and interpreted, we used a series of data from our previous work, consisting of 13 parameters measured for water samples taken from the Danube River, from Galati City area, Romania.