نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
دانشکده مهندسی عمران، آب و محیط زیست، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران.
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Rivers, as one of the main sources of water supply, play a vital role in meeting environmental, agricultural, and human needs. Assessing the water quality of these resources is essential for sustainable management and reducing environmental risks. Selecting an appropriate index for evaluating surface water quality is one of the key challenges in water resources management. In this study, in order to compare three widely used water quality indices, the Iranian National Water Quality Index (IRWQI), the National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI), and the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index (CCMEWQI), data collected from the Haraz River (nine stations during two seasons: winter and summer) were used as a case study. The results showed that all three indices were able to classify water quality relatively well; however, differences were observed in their sensitivity and discriminatory capability, with the NSFWQI generally providing more optimistic results. Furthermore, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to analyze the influence of different parameters on each index and to optimize water quality modeling. The findings indicated that in summer, nitrate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, and ammonium were the most influential parameters, accounting for a total of 83%, while in winter, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total hardness, and pH were the most influential, accounting for 82%. Water quality based on the NSFWQI was lower in summer than in winter; during winter, all stations fell within the medium to good categories, whereas only about 34% of the stations were in this range in summer. A decreasing trend in water quality along the river was also observed in both seasons. This study demonstrates that the choice of index can significantly affect the interpretation of water quality status, and that integrating indices with statistical methods such as RSM can provide an effective tool for surface water quality management in other rivers.
کلیدواژهها [English]