Modified Principal Component Analysis for Identifying Key Environmental Indicators and Application to a Large-Scale Tidal Flat Reclamation

Identification of the key environmental indicators (KEIs) from a large number of environmental variables is important for environmental management in tidal flat reclamation areas. In this study, a modified principal component analysis approach (MPCA) has been developed for determining the KEIs. The...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2018-01, Vol.10 (1), p.69
Main Authors: Chu, Kejian, Liu, Wenjuan, She, Yuntong, Hua, Zulin, Tan, Min, Liu, Xiaodong, Gu, Li, Jia, Yongzhi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Cadmium
Coastal environments
Correlation analysis
Divergence
Environmental indicators
Environmental management
Environmental protection
Environmental quality
Indicators
Marine environment
Mercury
Organic carbon
Phytoplankton
Principal components analysis
Reclamation
Sediments (Geology)
Temporal variations
Tidal flats
Total organic carbon
Water column
Water pollution
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Identification of the key environmental indicators (KEIs) from a large number of environmental variables is important for environmental management in tidal flat reclamation areas. In this study, a modified principal component analysis approach (MPCA) has been developed for determining the KEIs. The MPCA accounts for the two important attributes of the environmental variables: pollution status and temporal variation, in addition to the commonly considered numerical divergence attribute. It also incorporates the distance correlation (dCor) to replace the Pearson’s correlation to measure the nonlinear interrelationship between the variables. The proposed method was applied to the Tiaozini sand shoal, a large-scale tidal flat reclamation region in China. Five KEIs were identified as dissolved inorganic nitrogen, Cd, petroleum in the water column, Hg, and total organic carbon in the sediment. The identified KEIs were shown to respond well to the biodiversity of phytoplankton. This demonstrated that the identified KEIs adequately represent the environmental condition in the coastal marine system. Therefore, the MPCA is a practicable method for extracting effective indicators that have key roles in the coastal and marine environment.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w10010069