Influence of Extreme Strength in Water Quality of the Jucazinho Reservoir, Northeastern Brazil, PE

• Main Authors: Rafael Roney Camara de Melo, Ioná Maria Beltrão Rameh Barbosa, Aida Araújo Ferreira, Alessandra Lee Barbosa Firmo, Simone Rosa da Silva, José Almir Cirilo, Ronaldo Ribeiro Barbosa de Aquino
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-12-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: water supply; principal component analysis; Jucazinho reservoir
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/12/955

The Jucazinho reservoir was built in the State of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil, to water supply in a great part of the population that live in the semi-arid of Pernambuco. This reservoir controls the high part of Capibaribe river basin, area affected several actions that can compromise the reservoir water quality such as disposal of domestic sewage, industrial wastewater and agriculture with use of fertilizers. This study aimed to identify the factors that lead to water quality of the Jucazinho reservoir using a database containing information of nine years of reservoir water quality monitoring in line with a multivariate statistical technique known as Principal Component Analysis (PCA). To use this technique, it was selected two components which determine the quality of the reservoir water. The first principal component, ranging from an annual basis, explained the relationship between the development of cyanobacteria, the concentration of dissolved solids and electrical conductivity, comparing it with the variation in the dam volume, total phosphorus levels and turbidity. The second principal component, ranging from a mensal basis, explained the photosynthetic activity performed by cyanobacteria confronting with the variation in the dam volume. It observed the relationship between water quality parameters with rainfall, featuring an annual and seasonal pattern that can be used as reference to behaviour studies of this reservoir.