Physico-chemical water quality indices - a comparative review
2004
Alberto Ramírez | Fredy Solano | Nelson Fernández
Water quality assessment can be defined as the evaluation of the physical, chemical and biological nature of water in relation to natural quality, human effects and intended uses. Water Quality Indices (WQIs) and Water Pollution Indices (WPIs) reduce a great amount of parameters to a simpler expression, to enable easier interpretation of the monitoring data. Main Difference between WQIs and WPIs included the form how they evaluate the processes of pollution and the number of variables taken in account in each formulation. In this context, this paper displays a comparative study of 36 (thirty-six) WQIs and WPIs, on the basis of mathematical structure, similarity parameters and behavior given the same set of data. The results indicate that appreciable differences exist between classifications given by different indices on the same water sample. Differing parameter numbers, calculations and aggregation formulas can explain this. Thus, it was possible to establish that the WPIs developed in Colombia by Ramirez et. al. (1997) and the AMOEBA strategy, developed by de Zwart (1995) in The Netherlands, displays great advantages over traditional formulations, because the different kinds the pollution are segregated better.
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