Water Supply (Dec 2022)

The use of PCA and ANN to improve evaluation of the WQIclassic, development of a new index, and prediction of WQI, Coastel Constantinois, northern coast of eastern Algeria

  • Fadhila Fartas,
  • Boualam Remini,
  • Fateh Sekiou,
  • Nadir Marouf

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2022.389
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 12
pp. 8727 – 8749

Abstract

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The objective of this research was to arrive at a better assessment of the quality of surface water in the Constantine region. The focus was on the comparison of three classical indices WQINSF (National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index), WQICCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index) and WQIAP (weighted arithmetical Water Quality Index), the development of a new index and the prediction by ANN (artificial neural network) of WQI indices. The principal components analysis (PCA) allows the selection of 10 parameters to be used in the calculation of the classical WQI, and eight principal components to be used as input for the new proposed index (regularized WQI). However the ANN is applied for the search for prediction models of classical WQI and developed WQI. The results show that the WQIAP index assesses water quality better, and that the regularized WQI further promotes the assessment of water quality. WQIR shows that, after the pollution peak, the water quality does not return to its initial state. The modeling approach by ANN offers an effective alternative to predict the WQI, it subsequently appears that the ANN predicts the new index WQIRregularized (R2 = 0.999) better than the classic model WQIAP (R2 = 0.99). HIGHLIGHTS The first principal components with an eigenvalue greater than 1 are used as input in the calculation of the newly developed index (WQI regularized).; The regularized WQI index improves the assessment of the water quality of the Constantine catchment area compared to the classical indices WQIWeighted Arithmetic, WQINSF and WQICCME.; ANN prediction of classical and regularized WQI is evaluated using six fitness criteria: R, RMSE, MEA, NE, IOS and R%; The classical ANN model is mainly influenced by temperature, OS, NO3 and BOD5.; The regularized ANN model is influenced by Component 2 and Component 6, the component 2 is closely related to the parameters NO3, Tu, pH and temperature, while the component 6 is positively correlated with NO2 and Os.;

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