Abstract
Clean water and healthy watersheds are necessary for keeping water safe for human consumption and minimizing harmful changes to habitats for animals and plants by humans. Volunteers from the Volunteer Water Information Network collect samples from western North Carolina streams and rivers monthly. Samples are sent to the Environmental Quality Institute and analyzed for key indicators of water quality such as pH, total suspended solids, and Turbidity. Linear regression models are implemented to explore the effects of flow, season and time on water quality parameters. Least squares, auto-regressive, and moving-average models are compared and contrasted in order to assess which are best at predicting trends in the quantity of pollutants in western North Carolina Rivers. For five of the eight parameters analyzed, a least squares approach was best based on the criterion used. Significant trends were found for seasonality and flow where as a smaller amount of significant trends for time were found.
How to Cite
Lombardi, J., (2013) “Statistical Analysis of Water Quality in Western North Carolina Rivers”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 26(1).
2
Views
3
Downloads