Assessing water quality
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Abstract
Impairment of numerous water resources by anthropogenic stress has caused degradation, which reduces their ecological integrity, a combination of physicochemical and biological integrity. Techniques to assess impairment may be broadly divided into physicochemical, biological, and habitat assessments. Most physicochemical analyses are conducted in the laboratory. Biological techniques are divided into field measurements such as population and community level approaches using indigenous organisms as indicators of stress and laboratory measurements such as toxicology, which generally use field collected or laboratory raised animals to assess pollution effects on individual organisms. Impacted sites are compared with relatively unimpacted sites to estimate damage. While physicochemical and toxicological approaches have been largely standardised and are widely used, suitable protocols for field based bioassessments are relatively new, often not standardised, and not widely used. Since each approach provides unique information on water quality, integration of available methods is critical in providing a battery of assessment techniques to act as appropriate precursors to remedial action that may lead to recovery.