Physico-chemical characterization of the surface water of Nkam river using the principal component analysis

The study concerns the analysis of physico-chemical parameters of the nkam river in order to establish a diagnostic of water surface status of the river. to carry out the study,samplings were carried out on 12 stations during the dry season. the results obtained shows that at stations level (s1 to s7) where wastewater discharge from the villages situated along the river,the water has relatively good quality compared to international standards for fresh water (who),starting from temperature,salinity,electrical conductivity through tds to dbo5 and po4 3-. a rise in dissolved oxygen level,bod5,po4 3-,salinity and electrical conductivity downstream (s9 to s12) particularly in the dry season was observed. furthermore,the evolution of ph doesn't vary considerably between upstream and downstream in dry season. data interpretation performed by principal component analysis (pca) showed the correlation between the different parameters and the stations group distribution according to the degree of contamination. potentially interesting modeling parameters are identified using this statistical data processing tool. © 2017,university of mohammed premier oujda morocco.