Water Quality Assessment of Inland Waters in Cartagena de Indias – Colombia, Using Multivariate Statistics

Worldwide, industrial growth, overpopulation, and a lack of awareness about the need to protect essential resources are posing serious risks to natural water sources. The aesthetic value and ecological integrity of urban coastal waters are vital resources that the tourism industry depends on, and they are being jeopardized for the benefit of nearby populations. In this research the water quality of four inland waters in Cartagena de Indias were analyzed during the period 2008–2022. The study was focused on water parameters as electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD ₅ ), chemical oxygen demand (COD), salinity (Sal), pH, total suspended solids (TSS), total and fecal coliforms (TC), chlorophyll (Chla) and total phosphorus (TP). Descriptive and multivariable statistics were used to clarify the behavior of data. Capability analysis was applied to know if the water bodies may handle the amount of entering pollutants. Principal components analysis detected four components that explain 73.9% of the variance of data. PCA was also used to know the possible pollution sources and main contributors to contamination. Two trophic state indexes showed the level of contamination presented by waters.