Artificial neural network modeling of the water quality index using land use areas as predictors.

This paper describes the design of an artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the water quality index (WQI) using land use areas as predictors. Ten-year records of land use statistics and water quality data for Kinta River (Malaysia) were employed in the modeling process. The most accurate WQI predictions were obtained with the network architecture 7-23-1; the back propagation training algorithm; and a learning rate of 0.02. The WQI forecasts of this model had significant (p < 0.01), positive, very high correlation (ρs = 0.882) with the measured WQI values. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the relative importance of the land use classes to WQI predictions followed the order: mining > rubber > forest > logging > urban areas > agriculture > oil palm. These findings show that the ANNs are highly reliable means of relating water quality to land use, thus integrating land use development with river water quality management.

Water quality assessment and analysis of spatial patterns and temporal trends.

This study investigated relationships of a water quality index (WQI) with multiple water quality variables (WQVs), explored variability in water quality over time and space, and established linear and non-linear models predictive of WQI from raw WQVs. Data were processed using Spearman's rank correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and artificial neural network modeling. Correlation analysis indicated that from a temporal perspective, the WQI, temperature, and zinc, arsenic, chemical oxygen demand, sodium, and dissolved oxygen concentrations increased, whereas turbidity and suspended solids, total solids, nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), and biochemical oxygen demand concentrations decreased with year. From a spatial perspective, an increase with distance of the sampling station from the headwater was exhibited by 10 WQVs: magnesium, calcium, dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, temperature, NO3-N, arsenic, chloride, potassium, and sodium. At the same time, the WQI; Escherichia coli bacteria counts; and suspended solids, total solids, and dissolved oxygen concentrations decreased with distance from the headwater. Lastly, regression and artificial neural network models with high prediction powers (81.2% and 91.4%, respectively) were developed and are discussed.

Multivariate statistical techniques for the assessment of seasonal variations in surface water quality of pasture ecosystems.

This study investigates the applicability of multivariate statistical techniques including cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA), and factor analysis (FA) for the assessment of seasonal variations in the surface water quality of tropical pastures. The study was carried out in the TPU catchment, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The dataset consisted of 1-year monitoring of 14 parameters at six sampling sites. The CA yielded two groups of similarity between the sampling sites, i.e., less polluted (LP) and moderately polluted (MP) at temporal scale. Fecal coliform (FC), NO3, DO, and pH were significantly related to the stream grouping in the dry season, whereas NH3, BOD, Escherichia coli, and FC were significantly related to the stream grouping in the rainy season. The best predictors for distinguishing clusters in temporal scale were FC, NH3, and E. coli, respectively. FC, E. coli, and BOD with strong positive loadings were introduced as the first varifactors in the dry season which indicates the biological source of variability. EC with a strong positive loading and DO with a strong negative loading were introduced as the first varifactors in the rainy season, which represents the physiochemical source of variability. Multivariate statistical techniques were effective analytical techniques for classification and processing of large datasets of water quality and the identification of major sources of water pollution in tropical pastures.

Temporal patterns and source apportionment of nitrate-nitrogen leaching in a paddy field at Kelantan, Malaysia.

Nitrate-nitrogen leaching from agricultural areas is a major cause for groundwater pollution. Polluted groundwater with high levels of nitrate is hazardous and cause adverse health effects. Human consumption of water with elevated levels of NO3-N has been linked to the infant disorder methemoglobinemia and also to non-Hodgkin's disease lymphoma in adults. This research aims to study the temporal patterns and source apportionment of nitrate-nitrogen leaching in a paddy soil at Ladang Merdeka Ismail Mulong in Kelantan, Malaysia. The complex data matrix (128 x 16) of nitrate-nitrogen parameters was subjected to multivariate analysis mainly Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant Analysis (DA). PCA extracted four principal components from this data set which explained 86.4% of the total variance. The most important contributors were soil physical properties confirmed using Alyuda Forecaster software (R2 = 0.98). Discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the temporal variation in soil nitrate-nitrogen on leaching process. Discriminant analysis gave four parameters (hydraulic head, evapotranspiration, rainfall and temperature) contributing more than 98% correct assignments in temporal analysis. DA allowed reduction in dimensionality of the large data set which defines the four operating parameters most efficient and economical to be monitored for temporal variations. This knowledge is important so as to protect the precious groundwater from contamination with nitrate.

Cation dependence, pH tolerance, and dosage requirement of a bioflocculant produced by Bacillus spp. UPMB13: flocculation performance optimization through kaolin assays.

A bioflocculant-producing bacterial strain with highly mucoid and ropy colony morphological characteristics identified as Bacillus spp. UPMB13 was found to be a potential bioflocculant-producing bacterium. The effect of cation dependency, pH tolerance and dosage requirement on flocculating ability of the strain was determined by flocculation assay with kaolin as the suspended particle. The flocculating activity was measured as optical density and by flocs formation. A synergistic effect was observed with the addition of monovalent and divalent cations, namely, Na⁺, Ca²âº, and Mg²âº, while Fe²âº and Al³âº produced inhibiting effects on flocculating activity. Divalent cations were conclusively demonstrated as the best cation source to enhance flocculation. The bioflocculant works in a wide pH range, from 4.0 to 8.0 with significantly different performances (P < 0.05), respectively. It best performs at pH 5.0 and pH 6.0 with flocculating performance of above 90%. A much lower or higher pH would inhibit flocculation. Low dosage requirements were needed for both the cation and bioflocculant, with only an input of 50 mL/L for 0.1% (w/v) CaCl2 and 5 mL/L for culture broth, respectively. These results are comparable to other bioflocculants produced by various microorganisms with higher dosage requirements.

Artificial neural network modeling of the water quality index for Kinta River (Malaysia) using water quality variables as predictors.

This article describes design and application of feed-forward, fully-connected, three-layer perceptron neural network model for computing the water quality index (WQI)(1) for Kinta River (Malaysia). The modeling efforts showed that the optimal network architecture was 23-34-1 and that the best WQI predictions were associated with the quick propagation (QP) training algorithm; a learning rate of 0.06; and a QP coefficient of 1.75. The WQI predictions of this model had significant, positive, very high correlation (r=0.977, p<0.01) with the measured WQI values, implying that the model predictions explain around 95.4% of the variation in the measured WQI values. The approach presented in this article offers useful and powerful alternative to WQI computation and prediction, especially in the case of WQI calculation methods which involve lengthy computations and use of various sub-index formulae for each value, or range of values, of the constituent water quality variables.

Characterization of spatial patterns in river water quality using chemometric pattern recognition techniques.

This study employed three chemometric data mining techniques (factor analysis (FA), cluster analysis (CA), and discriminant analysis (DA)) to identify the latent structure of a water quality (WQ) dataset pertaining to Kinta River (Malaysia) and to classify eight WQ monitoring stations along the river into groups of similar WQ characteristics. FA identified the WQ parameters responsible for variations in Kinta River's WQ and accentuated the roles of weathering and surface runoff in determining the river's WQ. CA grouped the monitoring locations into a cluster of low levels of water pollution (the two uppermost monitoring stations) and another of relatively high levels of river pollution (the mid-, and down-stream stations). DA confirmed these clusters and produced a discriminant function which can predict the cluster membership of new and/or unknown samples. These chemometric techniques highlight the potential for reasonably reducing the number of WQVs and monitoring stations for long-term monitoring purposes.

Spatial water quality assessment of Langat River Basin (Malaysia) using environmetric techniques.

This study investigates the spatial water quality pattern of seven stations located along the main Langat River. Environmetric methods, namely, the hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA), the discriminant analysis (DA), the principal component analysis (PCA), and the factor analysis (FA), were used to study the spatial variations of the most significant water quality variables and to determine the origin of pollution sources. Twenty-three water quality parameters were initially selected and analyzed. Three spatial clusters were formed based on HACA. These clusters are designated as downstream of Langat river, middle stream of Langat river, and upstream of Langat River regions. Forward and backward stepwise DA managed to discriminate six and seven water quality variables, respectively, from the original 23 variables. PCA and FA (varimax functionality) were used to investigate the origin of each water quality variable due to land use activities based on the three clustered regions. Seven principal components (PCs) were obtained with 81% total variation for the high-pollution source (HPS) region, while six PCs with 71% and 79% total variances were obtained for the moderate-pollution source (MPS) and low-pollution source (LPS) regions, respectively. The pollution sources for the HPS and MPS are of anthropogenic sources (industrial, municipal waste, and agricultural runoff). For the LPS region, the domestic and agricultural runoffs are the main sources of pollution. From this study, we can conclude that the application of environmetric methods can reveal meaningful information on the spatial variability of a large and complex river water quality data.

Spatial assessment of Langat River water quality using chemometrics.

The present study deals with the assessment of Langat River water quality with some chemometrics approaches such as cluster and discriminant analysis coupled with an artificial neural network (ANN). The data used in this study were collected from seven monitoring stations under the river water quality monitoring program by the Department of Environment (DOE) from 1995 to 2002. Twenty three physico-chemical parameters were involved in this analysis. Cluster analysis successfully clustered the Langat River into three major clusters, namely high, moderate and less pollution regions. Discriminant analysis identified seven of the most significant parameters which contribute to the high variation of Langat River water quality, namely dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, pH, ammoniacal nitrogen, chlorine, E. coli, and coliform. Discriminant analysis also plays an important role as an input selection parameter for an ANN of spatial prediction (pollution regions). The ANN showed better prediction performance in discriminating the regional area with an excellent percentage of correct classification compared to discriminant analysis. Multivariate analysis, coupled with ANN, is proposed, which could help in decision making and problem solving in the local environment.

Nutrient removal in a pilot and full scale constructed wetland, Putrajaya city, Malaysia.

Putrajaya Wetlands in Malaysia, a 200ha constructed wetland system consisting of 24 cells, was created in 1997-1998 to treat surface runoff caused by development and agricultural activities from an upstream catchment before entering Putrajaya Lake (400ha). It was designed for stormwater treatment, flood control and amenity use. The water quality improvement performance of a section of the wetland cells is described. The nutrient removal performance was 82.11% for total nitrogen, 70.73% for nitrate-nitrogen and 84.32% for phosphate, respectively, along six wetland cells from Upper North UN6 to UN1 from April to December 2004. Nutrient removal in pilot scale tank systems, simulating a constructed wetland and planted with examples of common species at Putrajaya, the Common Reed Phragmites karka and Tube Sedge Lepironia articulata, and the capacity of these species to retain nutrients in above and below-ground plant biomass and substrate is reported. The uptake of nutrients by the Common Reed and Tube Sedge from the pilot tank system was 42.1% TKN; 28.9% P and 17.4% TKN; 26.1% P, respectively. The nutrient uptake efficiency of the Common Reed was higher in above-ground than in below-ground tissue. The results have implications for plant species selection in the design of constructed wetlands in Malaysia and for optimizing the performance of these systems.