Spatiotemporal Patterns in River Water Quality and Pollution Source Apportionment in the Arid Beichuan River Basin of Northwestern China Using Positive Matrix Factorization Receptor Modeling Techniques

Deteriorating surface water quality has become an important environmental problem in China. In this study, river water quality was monitored in July (wet season) and October (dry season) 2019 at 26 sites, and a water quality index (WQI) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) model were used to assess surface water quality and identify pollution sources in the Beichuan River basin, Qinghai Province, China. The results showed that 53.85% and 76.92% of TN, 11.54% and 34.62% of TP, 65.38% and 76.92% of Fe, and 11.54% and 15.38% of Mn samples in the dry and wet seasons, respectively, exceeded the Chinese Government’s Grade III standards for surface water quality. The spatial variation in water quality showed that it gradually deteriorated from upstream to downstream as a result of human activity. The temporal variation showed that water quality was poorer in the wet season than in the dry season because of the rainfall runoff effect. The PMF model outputs showed that the primary sources of pollution in the wet season were mineral weathering and organic pollution sources, domestic and industrial sewage, and agricultural and urban non-point pollution sources. However, in the dry season, the primary sources were mineral weathering and organic pollution sources, industrial sewage, and domestic sewage. Our results suggest that the point pollution sources (domestic and industrial sewage) should be more strictly controlled, as a priority, in order to prevent the continued deterioration in water quality.