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Application of the chemometric approach to evaluate the spatial variation of water chemistry and the identification of the sources of pollution in Langat River, Malaysia

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Abstract

The current study presents the application of selected chemometric techniques—hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA)—to evaluate the spatial variation of the water chemistry and to classify the pollution sources in the Langat River. The HCA rendered the sampling stations into two clusters (group 1 and group 2) and identified the vulnerable stations that are under threat. Group1 (LY 1 to LY 14) is associated with seawater intrusion, while group 2 (LY 15 to LY 30) is associated with agricultural and industrial pollution. PCA analysis was applied to the water datasets for group 1 resulting in four components, which explained 85 % of the total variance while group 2 extracted six components, explaining 88 % of the variance. The components obtained from PCA indicated that seawater intrusion, agricultural and industrial pollution, and geological weathering were potential sources of pollution to the study area. This study demonstrated the usefulness of the chemometric techniques on the interpretation of large complex datasets for the effective management of water resources.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Research University Grant Scheme vot no. 9199751, no. project 03-01-11-1142RU from Universiti Putra Malaysia and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) project number 09-09 RG/EAS/AS_C/UNESCO FR:3240231216. The first author sincerely acknowledges the support from Graduate Research Fellowship Scholarship awarded by Universiti Putra Malaysia for her study. Rainfall data and field services provided by the Department of Drainage and Irrigation (JPS), Malaysia is greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Forensics Research Centre, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Wan Ying Lim & Ahmad Zaharin Aris

  2. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Sarva Mangala Praveena

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  1. Wan Ying Lim
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  2. Ahmad Zaharin Aris
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Correspondence to Ahmad Zaharin Aris.

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Lim, W.Y., Aris, A.Z. & Praveena, S.M. Application of the chemometric approach to evaluate the spatial variation of water chemistry and the identification of the sources of pollution in Langat River, Malaysia. Arab J Geosci 6, 4891–4901 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-012-0756-6

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