Assessment of coastal water characteristics near brine discharge sites by applying multivariate statistical techniques and GIS, case study from BouIsmail Bay, Algeria

This study was carried out to assess the environmental conditions of coastal water near the brine discharge site of the Myah Tipaza desalination plant. About 50 surface seawater samples were collected from the area of the disposal site and analyzed during the spring of 2016, the autumn of 2016, the summer of 2017, and the winter of 2018. The results of the physicochemical analysis revealed a strong variation in space and time for some parameters measured (salinity, conductivity, chlorides, dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate matter, and current). The inverse distance weighting method (IDW) illustrated the highest values for salinity (39.94 psu), electrical conductivity (57.51 mS/cm), suspended particulate matter (14.62 mg/L), total dissolved solids (40,002 mg/L), and chloride (31,510 mg/L) in the immediate area around the brine outfall during the autumn and summer seasons. The correlation analysis shows that the relationships between the physicochemical parameters are different between the four surveys. The Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped the stations into four main clusters on the basis of their distance from the brine discharge point. Based on the obtained data, the seawater quality of the selected coastal area is sensitive and could be influenced by the brine outfall of this large-scale desalination plant.