Application of principal component analysis in groundwater quality assessment

Principal component analysis was used to analyze the groundwater quality data collected from the second water source area in Shizuishan city, aimed at determining the relationships among water quality variables, and exploring the major impact factors on water quality in the second water source area. The results show that the main pollution sources in the study area are industrial and municipal wastewaters, and the arid climate also plays an important role in the strong evaporation which imposes great influence on the groundwater chemical components. The study also shows that the main pollution chemical components are TDS, Na, Mg, Ca, Cl and SO₄. Compared with the current status of groundwater quality, analysis also indicates that the water samples have little descriptive differentiability, which indicates that water quality may be affected by long-term impact of farmland irrigation return water and ditches wastewater.