New methodology for evaluating the surface waters quality to be used as Class 2 in Costa Rica
The surface water quality determination is based through the analysis of a fair amount of physic chemicals, microbiological and biological water quality variables, as well as water quality indexes. The Costa Rican regulation considers the use of two indexes: one based on benthic invertebrate analysi...
| Autor Principal: | Calvo-Brenes, Guillermo |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Idioma: | Español |
| Publicado: |
Editorial Tecnológica de Costa Rica
2013
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: |
https://revistas.tec.ac.cr/index.php/tec_marcha/article/view/1399 https://hdl.handle.net/2238/4332 |
| Sumario: |
The surface water quality determination is based through the analysis of a fair amount of physic chemicals, microbiological and biological water quality variables, as well as water quality indexes. The Costa Rican regulation considers the use of two indexes: one based on benthic invertebrate analysis and the other on the Water Quality Holland Classification Index. The last one requires only three physic chemical variables that could generate some ambiguity and lack of strength in that index. It is therefore recommended not to discard the use of other indexes mentioned in the literature. Most of them require transforming the unit’s variable as dimensionless (SI) in a 0-100 scale. For the SI calculation, the Cude, Nasiriam, Dinius, Prakash, Prati, Walski-Parker and Stoner formulas were used. The SI should show a 0-100 scale variation. As a rule, the more concentration of a variable, the more tendency to 0 of the SI, which it is expected to have a close relationship with Costa Rican regulations. The objective of this research was to verify the aplicability of calculation formulas in order to obtain the SI and its posible aplication in our country, considering our own environment and regulations. All the analysis were focused on Class 2 mentioned in our national regulation. After the analysis of different formulas proposed by researchers, it was found that most of them were appropiate for their own environment but not for ours. Some are appropiate for different types of waters and their regulations are different for our country. It was necessary to propose new ways of calculating the SI for our country and to propose a new way of categorizing the quality of the Class 2 that is also useful for the aplication of several indexes. |
|---|