Statistical Assessment of Water Quality Parameters for Pollution Source Identification in Sukhnag Stream: An Inflow Stream of Lake Wular (Ramsar Site), Kashmir Himalaya

The precursors of deterioration of immaculate Kashmir Himalaya water bodies are apparent. This study statistically analyzes the deteriorating water quality of the Sukhnag stream, one of the major inflow stream of Lake Wular. Statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA), regression analysis, and cluster analysis, were applied to 26 water quality parameters. PCA identified a reduced number of mean 2 varifactors, indicating that 96% of temporal and spatial changes affect the water quality in this stream. First factor from factor analysis explained 66% of the total variance between velocity, total-P, NO3–N, Ca2+, Na+, TS, TSS, and TDS. Bray-Curtis cluster analysis showed a similarity of 96% between sites IV and V and 94% between sites II and III. The dendrogram of seasonal similarity showed a maximum similarity of 97% between spring and autumn and 82% between winter and summer clusters. For nitrate, nitrite, and chloride, the trend in accumulation factor (AF) showed that the downstream concentrations were about 2.0, 2.0, and 2.9, times respectively, greater than upstream concentrations. 1. Introduction River water quality is of great environmental concern since it is one of the major available fresh water resources for human consumption [1, 2]. Throughout the history of human civilization, rivers have always been heavily exposed to pollution, due to their easy accessibility to disposal of wastes. However, after the industrial revolution the carrying capacity of the rivers to process wastes reduced tremendously [3, 4]. Anthropogenic activities such as urban, industrial, and agricultural as well as natural processes, such as precipitation inputs, erosion, and weathering of crustal materials affect river water quality and determine its use for various purposes [1–5]. The usage also depends upon the linkages (channels) in the river system, as inland waterways play a major role in the assimilation and transportation of contaminants from a number of sources [6–8]. Besides linkages, the seasonal variation in precipitation, surface runoff, interflow, groundwater flow, and pumped in and out flows also have a strong effect on the concentration of pollutants in rivers [9–12]. In view of the limited stock of freshwater worldwide and the role that anthropogenic activities play in the deterioration of water quality, the protection of these water resources has been given topmost priority in the 21st century [13–15]. Research-wise, one of the important stages in the protection and conservation of these resources is the spatiotemporal analysis of water