Study on Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Water Quality in Xihe River and Baitapu River of Shenyang

In order to investigate the pollution characteristics of Shenyang section of Hunhe River, a key zone for Liao River Basin water pollution control, various methods including principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA) and GIS-based Kriging methods were used to analyze data sets of water quality for 10 parameters monitored at 18 different sites of Xihe River and Baitapu River in the dry season to determine spatial distribution patterns of the water quality. PCA results showed that the eigenvalues of the first three principal components of Baitapu River corresponded to the cumulated variance contribution ratio of 85.10%, with the main pollutants being ammonia nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll-a concentration, pH, etc. The eigenvalues of the first four principal components of Xihe River corresponded to the cumulated variance contribution ratio of 91.24%, and the main pollutants being ammonia nitrogen concentration, total nitrogen concentration, pH, electrical conductivity, etc. Spatical difference analysis showed that the water quality index of sample points in the surrounding area of middle and lower reaches of Baitapu River was higher than that of sample points in the surrounding area of the upstream. The organic pollution of Baitapu River was outstanding, and the heavy pollution areas were located at the section from Baitapu River into Hunhe River. The water quality index of sample points in the surrounding area of upstream of Baitapu River was higher than that of sample points in the surrounding area of the downstream. The ammonia-nitrogen pollution of Xihe River was heavy and the heavy pollution areas were located at the upstream of Xihe River.