Impact of Precipitation and Flow Rate Changes on the Water Quality of a Coastal River

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the effects of natural variables, including precipitation and flow rate, on the quality of the Zarjoub River in Guilan province, Iran. The new hydrological insight in this study is a lack of national research focused on the dual effects of rainfall and flow rate on river water quality in coastal areas along the Anzali Wetland. To investigate the effect of precipitation and flow rate on river water quality, nine water quality variables were monitored during the 10-year period. In this article, (a) the existence of trends and the best fitted models of water quality parameters and the discharge and precipitation were analysed using statistical techniques and (b) the relationships between concentration of constituents with the discharge and precipitation on the up-stream and middle station were also examined. Box plots, for explaining the distribution of a data collection, were used. The results showed the existence of trend of water quality parameters with river flow and rainfall. As presented in Section 3, with increasing precipitation and flow rate, concentration of all constituents, except pH and SO₄2, decreased. On the contrary, the maximum amount of water quality elements was observed in low precipitations; therefore, the maximum concentration occurred in less than 15 mm precipitation. Simple regression was used to evaluate the discharge concentration and precipitation concentration. According to the correlation coefficient (r), the relationship between concentration and precipitation is weaker than (0.238) discharge concentration (0.699). The results further showed climate change and river water quality to be related.