Article ID: | iaor20108620 |
Volume: | 24 |
Issue: | 12 |
Start Page Number: | 3257 |
End Page Number: | 3278 |
Publication Date: | Sep 2010 |
Journal: | Water Resources Management |
Authors: | Papaioannou Agelos, Dovriki Eleni, Rigas Nikolaos, Plageras Panagiotis, Rigas Ioannis, Kokkora Maria, Papastergiou Panagiotis |
Keywords: | cluster analysis, Greece |
Various chemometric methods were used to analyze and model potable water quality data. Twenty water quality parameters were measured at 164 different sites in three representative areas (low land, semi‐mountainous, and coastal) of the Thessaly region (Greece), for a 3‐month period (September to November 2006). Hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) grouped the 164 sample sites into two clusters (CA‐group 1 and CA‐group 2) based on the similarities of potable water quality characteristics. Discriminant analysis was assigned about 94.5% of the cases grouped by CA. Factor analysis (FA) was applied to standardized log‐transformed data sets to examine the differences between the above clusters and identify their latent factors. For each of the above two clusters (CA‐group 1 and CA‐group 2), FA yielded six latent factors that explain 68.7% and 73.4% of the total variance, respectively. FA was also identified the latent factors that characterize each cluster. The identification was obtained, using (a) descriptive statistics, (b)