Evaluación de la calidad de agua de la ciénaga de la Virgen (Cartagena, Colombia) aplicando técnicas estadísticas multivariadas

Contextualization: Water is one of the most important natural resources for life and is most impacted daily by the communities surrounding the bodies of water. Knowledge gap: Environmental authorities rarely use multivariate statistical analyzes to examine regional water quality, which is an important tool for environmental decision-making. Purpose: To determine the variation of the water quality of the Cienaga de la Virgen through the use of multivariate statistical methods to data collected from the year 2009 to 2017. Methodology: the samples were taken in the cienaga monthly, then in the laboratory the concentrations of Ammonium (NH4+), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Total Phosphorus (TP), Salinity, Total Coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), total suspended solids (TSS) were analyzed. Multivariate analyzes such as correlation matrix, principal component analysis, boxplots, and cluster were applied to the collected data. Results and conclusions: Multivariate data analysis showed different behaviors of water quality around the coastal lagoon and the strongest contamination factors are high levels of BOD5 and total and fecal coliforms. Both factors related to wastewater and solid waste. Conclusions: the greatest contamination in the swamp is caused by the community and its poorly treated waste, it is necessary to start awareness days in the Cartagena community on issues of water care in order to preserve this important water resource for the city. Contextualización: el agua es uno de los recursos naturales más importantes para la vida y es el que más está siendo afectado diariamente por las comunidades aledañas a los cuerpos de agua. Vacío de conocimiento: las autoridades ambientales utilizan muy poco el análisis estadístico multivariado para el estudio de la calidad de agua de las regiones, lo cual es una herramienta importante para la toma de decisiones ambientales. Propósito: Determinar la variación de la calidad del agua de la Ciénaga de la Virgen mediante el empleo de métodos estadísticos multivariados a datos colectados desde el año 2009 hasta 2017. Metodología: las muestras fueron tomadas en la ciénaga de la virgen Cartagena de manera mensual, llevadas al laboratorio y analizadas para Amonio (NH4+), Demanda bioquímica de oxígeno (DBO5), Demanda química de oxígeno (DQO), Oxígeno disuelto (OD), pH, Fosforo total (TP), Salinidad, coliformes totales (TC), coliformes fecales (FC), sólidos suspe