Christer John M. Uy and Mary Ann T. Pandan

University of St. La Salle

Abstract

Assessing marine water quality involves evaluating water conditions and identifying areas that may require further attention. It is crucial to characterize water quality parameters and identify potential pollutants. A plethora of data sets resulting from multiple water quality parameters would be too complex to process individually. In this study, the water quality of the Guimaras Strait was assessed using the comprehensive pollution index and geographic information system. To realize this objective, water samples were collected from 11 sampling sites for 1 year in the coastal waters of Bago City and Pulupandan and were analyzed in terms of nine parameters, such as pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrates (NO3 – N), phosphates (PO4 – P), total suspended solids (TSS), and fecal coliform (FC). The comprehensive pollution index was adopted to discover the main water pollutants and to evaluate the water quality pollution levels. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to visualize the spatial variation of the pollution characteristics and to identify the sources of spatial variation. The results showed that the general water quality in the Guimaras Strait was exposed to different pollutants but may be attributed to the presence of industrial wastewater in the area. The sources of the spatial variation are the industrial wastewater and domestic sewage. The average comprehensive pollution index value from April 2018 to March 2019 was 0.1653, indicating a sub-cleanliness pollution level. It is recommended to conduct regular coastal water monitoring and share data via GIS, in maintaining a healthy coastal environment.

Keywords: coastal water, feature scaling, normalization, spatial variation, water pollution

Read more: https://vjsti.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/VJSTI-017.pdf

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