Multivariate statistical analyses for the source apportionment of groundwater pollutants in Apulian agricultural sites

Multivariate statistical techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis, Absolute Principal Component Scores, Cluster Analysis and Discriminant Function Analysis were applied to data set (pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (O2), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), the major ions (i.e. Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Cl-, NO3-, SO42- and HCO3-), vital organism at 22 °C and 36 °C) of ground waters collected in 473 sites of the Apulia region during the “Expansion of regional agro-meteorological network” project. Multivariate statistical techniques allowed to identify for each province sites with different characteristics as respect to similar characteristics ones. Moreover Absolute Principal Component Scores allowed to identify generally three pollutant sources.