Chemometrics in Water Quality Criteria and Appraisal

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume VI, Issue X, October 2021|ISSN 2454-6194

Chemometrics in Water Quality Criteria and Appraisal

Chizoba Henrietta Unaeze^1*, Rasaq Bolakale Salau², Johnson Olusanya Jacob³, Muhammed Muhammed Ndamitso⁴, Abdul Kabir Mohammed^5
1National Biotechnology Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria
^2,3,4Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
⁵North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, U. S. A
Corresponding Author*

Abstract: Water quality is extremely important for a number of reasons from the protection of marine organisms and the well being of marine ecosystems to the health of people in the region and the safety of industries such as aquaculture. As a result it is essential that environmental health in water body is monitored. Traditional monitoring methods include assessment of biological indices or direct measurements of water quality, which are based on in situ data collection and hence are often spatially or temporally limited. But the complexity of information requires new analysis techniques that allow us to identify the components and possible causes of spatial and temporal variability. An overview of the application of chemometric data analysis methods to complex chemical mixtures in various environmental media is presented. This paper presents a review of selected research given as examples of the application of principal components analysis and other statistical methods to identify contributions from multiple sources of contamination. This review identifies how these methods can be utilized to address water quality variability in order to foster a wider application of such techniques for water quality assessment and monitoring.

Keywords: Water, Chemometrics, Contaminants, Sediments, Analysis, Heavy metals

I. INTRODUCTION

Environmental scientists are confronted with the daunting task of assessing ecosystem and human health impacts arising from a multitude of modern day pollutants. From the basic steps of data collection, data analysis/structure interpretation, and predictive model development, scientists and engineers must be able to gain key insights into the sources, migration pathways, and health consequences of contaminants (Lutgarde, et al., 2015). Remediation and control strategies require this information to be successful.
Chemometrics is the application of multivariate mathematical and statistical tools to the study of chemical problems, including methods for the analysis and interpretation of analytical instrumentation data. Chemometric analysis can be applied to multichannel spectroscopic data, multi-component chromatographic data or combinations of multivariate and univariate instrumentation that create a broad array of measures characterizing a complex environment. (Wenning, et al., 2012).

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