Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496

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Environmental Challenges
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envc

River pollution monitoring over an industrial catchment in urban

ecosystem: Challenges and proposed geospatial framework
Sheeba Sekharan a,#, Dipak R. Samal f,#, Harish C. Phuleria a,b, Munish K. Chandel b,
Shirish Gedam c, Rakesh Kumar e, Virendra Sethi b,d, Amar R. Supate g, Subhankar Karmakar a,b,c,∗
a
Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
b
Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400076, India
c
Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
d
Centre for Urban Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
e
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, India
f
Faculty of Technology, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad, India
g
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Mumbai, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Urban river pollution is considered a ‘necessary evil’ consequence of disproportionate developmental expansion
Industrial catchment in metropolises. Unprecedented expansion and anthropic activities amongst other reasons lead to choking of ur-
Urban ecosystem ban rivers with municipal and industrial sewage. Urban rivers are dying while awaiting rescue, despite the hard
River pollution
efforts by civic authorities, largely due to lack of coordination amongst river authorities and stakeholders, un-
Multivariate statistics
derlying conflicts spanning across all levels, balkanisation, pluralization, scarcity of reliable technical data, and
GIS
Urban river financial constraints. Challenges faced by stakeholders in river pollution management as revealed in informa-
tional interviews are foregrounded. In an attempt to reduce some of the overwhelm faced by officials on ground,
a geospatial framework is proposed which if functionally implemented can transparentize river water quality
(WQ) monitoring, and facilitate pollution control. The pollution situation in a persistently polluted urban river
near Mumbai city, India was explored and assessed in the middle of a restoration battle waged by environmen-
tal activists. Following secondary river water quality data acquisition, primary sample collection campaign and
WQ testing, multivariate statistical data analysis was performed under data- and resource-constraint situation.
Spatiotemporal monitoring and visualization of river water quality data holds great promise for effectively con-
trolling anthropic river pollution. A subsequent geospatial analysis of the study area was performed using digital
elevation model (DEM) based watershed delineation, land use land cover (LULC) classification, mapping of WQ
monitoring locations, mapping of industrial clusters, integration of spatial data, and identifying polluter indus-
tries. This steered us to formulate and propose the geospatial framework and supplementary recommendations on
how better to save this dying river. The framework displays near real-time information on river water quality at
different impaired river stretches in urban industrial ecosystem. Applicable universally for monitoring any river
in urban industrial catchment, it can be used as a reference by stakeholders and research aspirants.

1. Introduction
Largely unbridled developmental expansion and urbanization result
in dense clustering of micro/small/medium/large industrial catchments
and surrounding residential areas across global urban ecosystems, es-
pecially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Elmqvist et al.,
2013; L Sun et al., 2020.). As a seemingly inescapable consequence ur-
ban rivers continue getting polluted and choked by municipal and indus-
trial sewage, thus paving way for their demise (Chandrashekhar, 2018;
Strokal et al., 2021; Wen et al., 2017). Pollution situation of river
stretches in urban India is exponentially worse due to presence of clus-
ters of industries as compared to rural India (Panda et al., 2018). The
anthropical land use/cover (LULC) changes within a watershed nega-
tively impacting river water quantity (Samal & Gedam, 2021) and qual-
ity is a well-researched and widely accepted phenomenon in literature
(Santy et al., 2020; Xiaoping Wang & Zhang, 2018; Xiao et al., 2016).
Polluted urban waters are deliberated as a necessary evil in pursuit
of economic development/growth despite its unsustainability quotient.

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: skarmakar@iitb.ac.in (S. Karmakar).
#
Equal contribution

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100496
Received 31 August 2021; Received in revised form 6 February 2022; Accepted 24 February 2022
2667-0100/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Around 63% of the total 62 million litres/ day generated sewage is
dumped in Indian urban rivers without treatment, as per a Central Pollu-
tion Control Board report submitted to National Green Tribunal, India
(URL1, 2016; URL2, n.d.). Despite well-defined pollution control pro-
grams and policies in place for rivers set up by concerned authorities,
river water-quality across global cities is on a constant downhill on ac-
count of myriad anthropic reasons (Best, 2019). Implementation of river
pollution policies faces weak enforcement gap due to several challenges
associated with urban rivers – undercurrent hierarchization (Chien
& Hong, 2018), pluralization (Sherly et al., 2015) and balkanization
(Parthasarathy, 2016) of the environmental management authorities,
municipal bodies and other water regulatory stakeholder authorities
who are obligated to collaborate and coordinate with each other to man-
age water quality and keep rivers pristine (Cribb, 1990; Weale, 1992);
and unorganized clusters of urban industrial catchments and common
effluent treatment plants (CETPs)/ sewage treatment plants (STPs) not
functioning to their full capacity that directly discharge their effluents
into rivers (Lucas, 2002). Most micro, small, and medium scale indus-
tries either do not bother or struggle to afford the cost-intensive indus-
trial effluent treatment plants, and tend to directly/ indirectly discharge
their semi-treated/ untreated effluents to rivers. There are numerous
news articles and eye-witness accounts of illegal, unregulated and un-
treated toxic waste-dumping into rivers (Helmer & Hespanhol, 1997;
Undirwade, 2015). At many river stretches, domestic sewage is either
directly poured into rivers without any form of treatment (Goel, 2006;
Suthar et al., 2010; Xu et al., 2019) or is mixed at CETPs meant for
industrial wastewater (Salunke et al., 2014) for which they are not
equipped. Source apportionment studies, that derive information about
sources of pollution and the amounts they contribute (Huang et al.,
2010; Kumar et al., 2018; Rout et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2007), are very
important for any pollution control programme but are ever considered
so practically. In addition to the above-mentioned challenges faced in
the context of river pollution control, river water quality analyses data
performed by authorities are often found to be ambiguous, missing and
incongruous which hinders the effective design and implementation of
river pollution control measures.
The above-discussed issues were uncovered as a result of multiple
stakeholder discussions, informational interviews and field visits, while
conducting a pollution assessment study of a heavily polluted urban
river located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which is a coastal
region in western India. Secondary river WQ data collected from con-
cerned river authorities was subjected to multivariate statistical anal-
yses, however, was found to be unreliable and sparse for making any
robust inferences. In view of such resource- and data-sparse situation, a
one-time comprehensive river monitoring was conducted to get an in-
stantaneous status of water quality at different stretches of the study
area. Comprehending the practical challenges faced by the concerned
stakeholder authorities in reducing pollution levels helped germinate
the idea of developing an integrated, geospatial decision-support frame-
work for near real-time river pollution monitoring. Remote sensing
and GIS technologies are widely being utilized for effective river wa-
ter pollution monitoring in data-sparse LMICs (El-Rawy et al., 2020;
Griffin et al., 2018; Kapalanga et al., 2021; Kloiber et al., 2002; Sultana
& Dewan, 2021; X Sun et al., 2022).
The proposed remote-sensed and Geographic Information System
(GIS) based integrated framework, universally applicable to any river
system, is a facilitative attempt to transparentize river pollution mon-
itoring by incorporating GIS technology and possibly reduce some of
the decision-making overwhelm faced by river authorities in pollution
control. The GIS based monitoring, if functionally implemented, shall
enable the extraction of near real-time river water quality status in-
formation at any point in the river stretch, which shall help track the
impaired river stretches. This can assist in transparent source appor-
tionment analyses. Scrutinizing spatiotemporal variations in river water
quality and LULC patterns contributes in identifying pollution sources
of urban rivers (Liu et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2021), and GIS will help
2
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
achieve that. It will also help in monitoring the frequency of impair-
ment happening at river stretches. Using the proposed framework, the
river authorities can map near real-time instream water quality to iden-
tify impaired river stretches, thus stimulating timely action for pollution
control. This shall not only help in reconfiguring the river monitoring
activities in a fool-proof manner but also in generating consistent and
reliable WQ data for further analyses.
Most urban polluted rivers in LMICs are the direct consequence of er-
ratic urban sprawl within highly industrialised areas (Wen et al., 2017;
Xu et al., 2019). People living in urban industrial catchments are usually
dependent on the same polluted rivers for their domestic needs, directly
or indirectly. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of GIS
based water quality monitoring in India and abroad (Ramadas & Saman-
taray, 2018; Xiaoping Wang & Zhang, 2018). However, rarely do such
studies pertain to rivers flowing through urban industrial ecosystems.
The novel objective of this paper is to bring to light the challenges faced
in managing urban watershed pollution, and to demonstrate the efficacy
of integrating GIS into the existing WQ monitoring procedures through
advanced monitoring strategies and robust data inventorization, specif-
ically in urban industrial catchments.
2. Material & methods
Every possible secondary dataset available with concerned stake-
holders on water quality parameter analyses in the study area was col-
lected for systematic data inventorization and analysed to the extent
possible. They were largely inconsistent and had a significant number
of missing values. Nevertheless, multivariate statistical techniques were
applied on the part of the data found to be reliable and consistent,
and its results have been displayed for demonstrating the advantage of
such techniques. A corroborative WQ monitoring was also performed at
strategic locations in the study area and multiple geospatial data surveys
were conducted.
2.1. Study area description
The study area physically explored for pollution assessment is the
polluted Ulhas-Waldhuni (UW) watershed located in the intensely ur-
banized Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Maharashtra state, western In-
dia. As seen in Fig. 1, Ulhas river originates from Western Ghats and
flows in north-west direction into the Arabian Sea. Ulhas River at Van-
gani village is the most upstream point in the study area, and is thus
relatively in cleaner form. The downstream point of NRC Bund is the
first point in the saline Ulhas Creek. Ulhas Creek at Retibunder is the
most downstream point in the study area. The urban areas around
the study area being part of MMR are industrially important and are
hence densely populated. For much of its flow route, Ulhas river is ei-
ther dying with low oxygen supply struggling to support marine life
or a glorified gutter laden with anthropogenic and industrial efflu-
ents (Jadhav & Singare, 2015a, 2015b, 2015d, 2015c; Sahu & Mukher-
jee, 1983; Singare, 2012). Waldhuni river which was originally a trib-
utary of Ulhas river outflowing from GIP and Chikhloli dams in Am-
bernath district, is a visibly dead zone (Nabar et al., 2011; Pardeshi &
Vaidya, 2015; Undirwade, 2015). It is surrounded by a plethora of mi-
cro/small/medium scale manufacturing industrial clusters (IC) with reg-
istered and unregistered industries and residential slums that contribute
heavily to pollution load. A significant portion of the total wastewater
generated in the study area is from domestic sources, which is disposed
into the study area without any treatment.
The total study area is 317.7 km2 . Both Waldhuni watershed (66.4
km2 ) and two impaired stretches of Ulhas river (167.6 km2 sweet inland
zone from Vangani village in Thane district to upstream of NRC Bund
at Shahad, Kalyan; 83.7 km2 tidal saline zone from Ulhas Creek stretch
from NRC Bund till Retibunder in Dombivli), where pollution concen-
tration is reported to be high, were considered for the study. Six CETPs
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 1. Location map of the study area
(catering to around 1000 industries) and four STPs (catering to a pop-
ulation of 20 million approx.) discharge their industrial and domestic
effluents respectively into the study area.
2.2. Multivariate statistical analysis on river water quality data
Multivariate statistical analysis (MSA) (Anderson et al., 1958;
Johnson & Wichern, 2002) of statistically-eligible river water qual-
ity data is extensively applied to assess pollution situation at differ-
3
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
ent stretches of river systems (Kazi et al., 2009; Noori et al., 2010;
Shrestha & Kazama, 2007; Singh et al., 2004; Vega et al., 1998;
Zhang et al., 2011). Multivariate statistical techniques - cluster anal-
ysis (CA), factor analysis (FA), principal component analysis (PCA) -
are applied for water quality assessment (A Mishra, 2010.), identifica-
tion (Puckett, 1995) and apportionment of pollution sources/ water-
quality parameters (Gholizadeh et al., 2016; Singh et al., 2005) to get
robust information about the water quality and design of monitoring
network/strategy (Bartram & Ballance, 1996; Dixon & Chiswell, 1996;
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 2. Methodology for developing geospatial framework
Strobl & Robillard, 2008; Varekar et al., 2015) for effective manage-
ment of water resources (Singh et al., 2004), and subsequent water
quality modelling (Biswas, 2006; Chapra, 2008; Kannel et al., 2007).
Application of multivariate statistics on water quality datasets help in
tracing out the origin of different pollutants such as municipal sewage,
industrial effluent and agricultural run-off, provided large and con-
sistent datasets are available for relevant water quality parameters
(Mavukkandy et al., 2014; Simeonov et al., 2003).
In the current study, multivariate statistical analysis techniques were
applied to rationalize water quality parameters and monitoring loca-
tions on two sets of reliably consistent secondary datasets from 5 lo-
cations (numbered in Fig. 1) procured from Monitoring of Indian Na-
tional Aquatic Resources System (MINARS) project under National Wa-
ter Quality Monitoring Program (NWMP). Set-I consisted of 10 months
(Jan 2014 - Oct 2014) data on 21 water quality parameters. Set-II con-
sisted of 47 months (Jan 2011 - Nov 2014) data on 6 water quality
parameters (pH, BOD, COD, Nitrate Nitrogen, Faecal Coliform).
Multivariate statistical methods require that the data be dimen-
sionless, hence data distribution was standardized and normalised
(Zhang et al., 2011). Missing data imputation included replacing by
mean values from two adjacent stations. Below Detection Limit (BDL)
values were imputed using a technique explained in (Croghan &
Egeghy, 2003). CA was applied on Set-I for stakeholder demonstra-
tions, and FA being best suited for large sample sizes was applied
on Set-II. In water quality context, CA essentially creates homogenous
groups or ‘clusters’ based on similar/dissimilar behavioural patterns ob-
served amongst WQ variables. Agglomerative (bottom-up) hierarchical
CA, which is quite suitable for pattern-recognition in small datasets and
can be visualized through a Dendrogram, classifies data by consider-
ing each datapoint as a singleton cluster and then merging the closest
clusters together stepwise till an all-encompassing root cluster remains.
FA helps identify significant monitoring locations that display the maxi-
mum possible variations in water quality. FA is performed by examining
the pattern of correlations between the variable values. Variables that
are highly correlated are likely influenced by the same factors while
those that are relatively uncorrelated are likely influenced by different
factors. The default case of 2 factors was considered and factor correla-
tion coefficients were computed. The factor correlation coefficient was
considered significant if its value was greater than 0.7 (Noori et al.,
2010; Ouyang, 2005). The variables with factor loading (correlation co-
4
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
efficients between the factor and the variable) less than this threshold
(0.7) were considered to be non-principal variables (Mavukkandy et al.,
2014). PCA and FA are pattern recognition and dimension reduction
techniques, and in WQ context assuming there are p variables, the idea
is that m < p independent and representative factor variables exist that
can capture the water quality variation in river system. PCA explains
variance in a huge dataset of correlated variables with lesser num-
ber of uncorrelated independent variables (principal components (PC)),
thus removing redundant variables with minimal loss of information
(Iscen et al., 2008; Simeonov et al., 2003). PCA extracts eigenvalues
and eigenvectors from covariance matrix of original WQ parameter vari-
ables. The 𝑝𝑐𝑖 , weighted linear combinations of original WQ variables,
are the orthogonal i.e., uncorrelated variables obtained by multiplying
the original correlated standardized WQ variables with the eigenvector
weights, as seen in Eq1.
𝑁 ( )
∑ 𝑥𝑗 − 𝑥̄ 𝑗
𝑝𝑐𝑖 = 𝑉𝑖𝑗 , 𝑖 = 1, 2, … , 𝑝 (1)
𝑗=1
𝜎𝑗
where 𝑥𝑗 are observations of ith WQ variable with mean 𝑥̄ 𝑗 and standard
deviation 𝜎𝑗 , and 𝑉𝑖𝑗 are eigenvectors of covariance matrix of WQ data,
N is total number of observations. 𝑝𝑐1 accounts for maximum variance
in the data, 𝑝𝑐2 accounts for the second largest amount of variance in
the data and is uncorrelated with 𝑝𝑐1 and so on.
FA is performed by examining the covariance data matrix i.e., pat-
tern of correlations between the WQ parameters. FA considers the vari-
ance in the observed WQ variables to be influenced by presence of latent
factors (common factors). Highly correlated WQ parameters are likely
influenced by the same factors, and uncorrelated WQ parameters are
likely influenced by different factors. FA follows PCA. FA reduces the
less significant WQ variables coming from PCA by rotating the axis de-
fined by PCA and constructing new variables, vari-factors (VFs). VFs
include latent variables and PCs are linear combinations of observable
water-quality variables but both VFs and PCs have the same variation
(Iscen et al., 2008).
In matrix notation, factors can be written in linear combination form
as
𝑋 − 𝜇 = Λ𝑓 + 𝜀 (2)
Where = (𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , ⋯ , 𝑥𝑝 mean 𝜇 = (𝜇1 , 𝜇2 , ⋯ , 𝜇𝑝
)′ ; )′ ; factors 𝑓 =
(𝑓1 , 𝑓2 , ⋯ , 𝑓𝑚 )′ ; error matrix 𝜀 = (𝜀1 , 𝜀2 , ⋯ , 𝜀𝑝 )′ ;
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 3a. Clusters formed of Inland stations (in Blue) & tidally influenced stations (in Red).
factor loadings matrix Λ = (𝜆𝑖𝑗 )′ is the loading of 𝑋𝑖 on factor 𝑓𝑗 with 𝑖 =
1, … , 𝑝; 𝑗 = 1, … , 𝑚; 𝑚 < 𝑝
In this study where getting reliable and consistent data was a con-
stant challenge, a brief part of secondary river water quality data col-
lected from stakeholders was found eligible for applying multivariate
techniques. Their results have been included ahead for demonstration
purposes. The objective was to familiarize river stakeholders with the
practical functionality of applying multivariate statistical analysis tech-
niques in WQ monitoring.
2.3. Development of a geospatial framework for pollution monitoring in
rivers
Remote sensing and GIS technologies are being widely studied and
applied for effective river quality monitoring (Ritchie et al., 2003;
Satapathy et al., 2010; Somvanshi et al., 2012; Sultana & Dewan, 2021).
As evident in recent literature, futuristic geospatial and Internet of
Things (IoT) based techniques are also being used for WQ monitor-
ing (Cao et al., 2022; Chen et al., 2022; Chowdury et al., 2019;
Radhika et al., 2022; Sharmila et al., 2022; X Sun et al., 2022.). Along-
side the application of multivariate statistical techniques on secondary
5
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
data, a geospatial framework was thought out in order to develop a
near real-time system for WQ monitoring. The development of geospa-
tial framework as seen in Fig. 2 includes four steps; a) DEM-based
automated watershed delineation, b) mapping of water sampling lo-
cations and visualization of pollution concentration, c) preparation of
LULC map from satellite image, d) demarcation of industrial catchments
through spatial analysis and finally all the datasets were integrated in
GIS environment to develop a framework for pollution monitoring in
the study area. The globally available Shuttle Radar Topography Mis-
sion (SRTM) data (30 m) was used to delineate the UW watershed and
sub-watersheds. The process flow includes sink/fill, determination of
flow direction, flow accumulation, pour point selection and watershed
delineation. The entire watershed in the study area is further divided
in several sub-watersheds to identify the areas having close proximity
to the impaired stretches of the river. The water sample locations in
the study area were collected through a Differential Global Positioning
System (GPS) survey method. The sampling locations (Lat/Long, World
Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84)) were plotted in GIS and their real-
world position was validated visually with the help of Google Earth
platform. The LULC map was prepared to establish a qualitative rela-
tion between anthropogenic effects on water quality. The Landsat En-
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 3b. Clustered Heat map (double dendrogram) showing standardized WQ parameter values at each station. Tidally-influenced stations ([1], [3]) seem to be
crossing limits in several WQ parameters.
hanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) (30 m) data was downloaded from
open-source domain and pre-processed before classification. Broad land
use classes, such as water bodies, built-up, waste land and forested ar-
eas were identified, and their spectral signatures were taken for image
classification. In post-processing, a majority filter was used on the im-
age classification to remove salt-pepper effects and produce a relatively
better LULC map (Samal & Gedam, 2015). In the study area, the ICs
are a major contributor to the industrial pollution. Therefore, all the IC
boundary, CETPs, member industry units along with their cadastral in-
formation were collected to identify the probable sources of pollution
in the study area. In the due process, it was noticed that the cadas-
tral information was in non-GIS (∗ .dwg) format which must be con-
verted to a GIS compatible (∗ .shp) format for seamless integration with
other spatial data in a geospatial framework. The entire conversion pro-
cess was carried out and the maps were geo-referenced using ground
control points (GCP). In addition, the plot boundaries were spatially
adjusted to realign the exact orientation of cadastral plots within the
ICs.
6
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
3. Applications
Challenges encountered with secondary river WQ data and re-
lated insights
The significant observations made through field-visits and data anal-
yses were: a) high level of visible river pollution in the study area, dis-
coloured water, several stretches with no flow owing to sewage accu-
mulation, low awareness on effects of river pollution in surrounding
public, b) overburdened CETPs with each plant catering to more mem-
ber industries than it is designed to, c) non-optimal functioning of STPs
and CETPs, industries bypassing wastewater discharge rules, d) consid-
erable difficulty in data collection from stakeholders requiring numer-
ous follow-up attempts, e) presence of intermittent, inconsistent and un-
reliable secondary data from stakeholders on river water quality, ren-
dering most of them unqualified for efficient application of multivariate
statistical techniques.
During secondary data inventorization, a water-quality data ma-
trix was created that helped visualise the extent of the data scarcity
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 3c. Dendrogram showing clusters of inland (‘red’ stations [2], [4], [5] as also marked in Fig. 1) and tidally-influenced stations (‘green’ ones are [1], [3] stations
in Fig. 1)
problems. Its thorough scrutiny revealed irregular water quality sam-
ples, with different parameters analysed in each sample, producing a
huge quantum of missing values. It was also observed that each sam-
pling location has different sample sizes for each parameter. Such a
data-scarce situation encountered due to balkanization and pluralisa-
tion makes it challenging to generate robust inferences using multivari-
ate statistical analyses for which substantial amount of past data, with
minimal missing values that is rearrangeable to multidimensional ma-
trix form, is of utmost necessity. Sufficient past data collected through
efficient surface water quality monitoring (Bartram & Ballance, 1996;
Dixon & Chiswell, 1996; Strobl & Robillard, 2008; Varekar et al.,
2015) that is temporally continuous with minimal missing values is a
pre-requisite for consequential robust statistical analyses so to assess
long-term trends, influence of seasonal fluctuations, and any identifi-
cation (Yang et al., 2021) and impact of point (as well as non-point)
source of water pollution (Kamarudzaman et al., 2011; Loehr, 1974;
Puckett, 1995; Schaffner et al., 2009; Xuejun Wang et al., 2004), and
surface water quality modeling (C Wang et al., 2006.; Q Wang et al.,
2013.; Whitehead et al., 2018). Nevertheless, two secondary water qual-
ity datasets procured from NWMP MINARs for 5 locations (marked
[1,2,3,4,5] in Fig. 1) in the study area were found satisfactorily eli-
gible for applying multivariate statistical analysis techniques. CA was
suitably applied on Set-I to create clusters of monitoring locations ex-
hibiting similar behavior, displayed as double dendrogram or in other
words ‘clustermap’ in Figs. (3a, 3b, 3c). Stakeholders will be able to
decipher visually the cluster of river stretches that need attention and
relevant actions can be taken up.
The suitability of the secondary data (Set 2) for factor analysis
was evaluated by Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (Cerny & Kaiser, 1977) measur-
ing of sampling adequacy and Bartlett tests of sphericity (Arsham &
7
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
Lovric, 2011). A p-value < 0.05 obtained in Bartlett test reveals that
correlation is present among the WQ variables which ensures successful
application of factor analysis. A Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) value i.e.,
overall proportion of variance of 0.8023 also shows that factor analysis
can be applied on Set 2. In Fig. 4, Scree plot generated after applying
factor analysis, number of eigenvalues greater than 1.0 reveal the apt
number of factors to be considered since eigenvalues are the amount
of variance explained by the factors. Varimax orthogonal rotation that
requires the factors to be uncorrelated is performed to generate factor
loadings. Loadings are correlations between factors and the variables
and range from -1 to 1 and indicate the extent to which a factor ex-
plains a variable. Values close to -1 or 1 indicate that the factor has
an influence on these variables; the first factor always accounts for the
most variance (and hence has the highest eigenvalue), and the next fac-
tor accounts for as much of the left-over variance as it can, and so on.
Communality measures the proportion of each WQ variable’s variance
that can be explained by the two factors jointly, e.g., 77.9% of COD’s
variance is explained by the two factors Table 1. shows the factor load-
ings between the WQ parameters, and it can be inferred that pH, BOD,
COD with higher factor loadings (values > 0.7 in bold in Table 1) are
significant enough to be considered for continuous monitoring in future.
FA is to be necessarily applied to determine the optimal number of sta-
tions and WQ parameters to be included in a monitoring network so as
to optimize costs.
Challenges encountered with corroborative study and related
insights
A corroborative one-time sampling study was undertaken with the
objective of getting an instantaneous water quality picture of the study
area and the extent of pollution caused by its point sources (i.e., the
STPs, CETPs, and Nallahs). Around 130+ locations were initially iden-
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496

Fig. 4. Scree plot demonstrating the selection

of optimal factors (in this case two factors)
The above Figs. have been included to demon-
strate the benefits of applying multivariate sta-
tistical analysis on river WQ data; river WQ re-
sults at different stretches can be visualised in
one frame, thus facilitating decision making.

Table 1 operation and maintenance at the plants. Discussions with the plants’
Factor Loadings corresponding to each WQ parameter variables in Set 2. staff revealed receipt of higher inflow as compared to inlet design, no
WQ parameter variables Factor Loadings Communalities primary treatment by member industries, mixing of sewage at effluent
treatment plants as some reasons for their less than ideal functioning
Factor 1 Factor 2
(CPCB, 2005; Metcalf, 2003).
pH -0.095 0.706 0.508 For overcoming the challenges faced by local river authorities
DO -0.592 0.504 0.605
as discussed above, what we recommend are the following: (i) con-
BOD 0.794 -0.248 0.692
COD 0.853 -0.229 0.779 duct frequent post monsoon technical performance assessment of
Nitrate 0.449 -0.348 0.323 sewage/effluent treatment plants, particularly in tropical regions where
Fecal Coliform 0.492 -0.046 0.244 monsoon rainfall is quite significant, for process optimization and upgra-
dation of treatment technologies as deemed necessary, (ii) regular water
quality analysis at inlet and outlet of sewage/effluent treatment plants
tified through virtual exploration of the study area, discussions with for a considerable time period (> 1 year) to help in precise segregation of
stakeholders, and physical field visits. Out of these 130+ locations, pollutant-concentrations discharged from different types of industries,
26 strategic locations were finalised for the one-time primary sam- (iii) delineation of urban industrial catchments and accurate grid
pling. River surface water samples were collected in plastic bottles for mapping of their member industries at regular intervals to identify and
physicochemical and microbiological analyses with water quality pa- prune cluster of industries that discharge without appropriate treat-
rameters (pH, Color, Odour, DO, TDS, Chlorides, Turbidity, BOD, COD, ment; geospatial mapping responsibilities can be undertaken by in-
Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Fluoride, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Arsenic, Oil and dustrial development agencies, (iv) install real-time non-contact type
Grease, Sulphate, Phosphate, Chromium Hexa, Total Ammonical Nitro- flow/discharge measuring devices, (v) dredging at river confluences
gen, Cyanide, Nickel, Total Chromium, Nitrate Nitrogen, Total Coliform, and creek points both pre-monsoon and post-monsoon (vi) sensitizing
Faecal Coliform). Upstream and downstream river points in each catch- pollution defaulter industries about zero-discharge (Van der Bruggen &
ment were sampled (Bartram & Ballance, 1996). It facilitated a quick Braeken, 2006) and recycling (Ranade & Bhandari, 2014) principles,
validation of the pollution situation in the study area as observed in (vii) a central portal for secondary data from stakeholders accessible on
secondary data and confirmed its deteriorating status. The water quality request for researchers.
test results from the corroborative study were compared with standard Despite the challenges discussed in this paper, inferences that could
accepted norms (CPCB, 1986). be drawn from secondary data and corroborative sampling analyses
The CETPs and STPs are considered major sources of urban river were that river water-quality in the study area is heavily deteriorated,
pollution (Kathuria & Turaga, 2014) as they discharge into rivers di- and existing data is intermittent and hence insufficient to generate any
rectly and practically most such plants do not run at full capacity. Op- constructive in-depth statistical insights. It was recognised that geospa-
erational performance of sewage/effluent treatment plants in the study tial representation of secondary/primary data gives a better understand-
area was found to be highly questionable (officially, only 79% capacity ing of WQ status.
was operational in effluent treatment plants and 50% of sewage treat- Recommendations to overcome stakeholder challenges
ment plants in the study area were dysfunctional). Several water quality Quality of an analysis is highly dependent on quality and extent
parameters were found to be not fulfilling the regulatory discharge stan- of the data. Grab samples can utmost reveal instantaneous river wa-
dards (CPCB, 1986) in the outlet. BOD, COD, trace metal values were ter quality status but do not hold enough substance to contribute to
in non-compliance with regulatory effluent standards and highly fluc- decision-making process. Long-term decision-making demands uncover-
tuating at all plants. TDS, chloride, and sulphate were observed to be ing of past latent trends and patterns in river water quality, which can
higher at outlet compared to inlet. These observations hinted at poor be achieved through building an efficient water quality monitoring net-

8
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 5. Flowchart displaying recommendations derived post-investigation of the river stakeholder challenges
work (Dixon & Chiswell, 1996; A. K Mishra & Coulibaly, 2009.; Strobl
& Robillard, 2008). However, it is difficult and almost futile without
availability of significant amount of consistent and robust water quality
data. Thus, acquiring relevant and reliable water quality data, though
an admittedly tedious task, is the first and most important step before
applying the proposed geospatial framework. Identifying the potential
polluting locations in the river on the basis of field visits, informational
interviews with various river stakeholders (such as municipal bodies, in-
dustrial development agencies, pollution control agencies, CETPs/STPs)
and the river-surrounding public, virtual exploration, and geo-spatial
catchment analyses of the river are the further requisite steps before ap-
plying the proposed framework. It is recommended that short-term wa-
ter quality monitoring be carried out at the identified strategic locations
diurnally for 3-4 months and subsequently analysed for all relevant wa-
ter quality parameters. This database be then subjected to multivariate
statistical analysis to identify and rationalize homogenous location clus-
ters (Alameddine et al., 2013; Mavukkandy et al., 2014; Varekar et al.,
2015, 2016, 2021), and arrive at a rationalized network i.e., reduced
and optimally-representative subset of monitoring locations and WQ
parameters which consistently captures significant variability in most
of the WQ parameters. Once the optimally rationalised set of locations
9
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
is finalized statistically, a river water quality database can be generated
after regular monitoring at the rationalised network using the proposed
geospatial framework, and a surface water quality model can be devel-
oped using the water quality database. Refer the flowchart in Fig. 5.
We recommend that the water quality model be used as a planning
tool for future by compulsorily running it prior to giving consent to new
industries, expansion of industries/CETP or augmentation of water sup-
ply etc. Prior to this, however, reliable and effective data generation
and management is the first and foremost feasibility criteria for effec-
tive multivariate statistical analyses and surface water quality modelling
which in turn would facilitate strategic decision-making for rejuvenation
of pollution-impaired river stretches.
3.1. Development of geospatial framework for WQ data
The overall approach here was to visualize the pollution scenario
of an urban ecosystem in the study area. A geospatial framework was
developed to integrate all spatial data pertaining to UW watershed in
a GIS platform in order to understand and visualize the impaired river
stretches on near real-time basis. The framework consists of GIS-based
watershed/sub-watershed delineation, mapping of primary/secondary
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496

Fig. 6. Representation of spatial distribution of pollution levels for a. BOD, b. COD, c. TDS, and d. Fluoride (all in mg/L units) in the study area

Fig. 7. LULC map of the study area

10
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Fig. 8. Delineation of industrial catchment
water sampling locations, preparing LULC map, mapping ICs and iden-
tifying different industry types within the ICs.
The framework starts with downloading and processing of an open
source SRTM DEM (Spatial resolution of 30m) data. The DEM is capa-
ble of capturing natural topography and drainage systems of the study
area. The entire watershed in the study area is divided into several num-
ber of sub-watersheds in the vicinity of impaired river stretch. Dividing
the watershed to a finite number of sub-watersheds might provide vital
11
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
information about the flow of pollutants as well as its impact on down-
stream areas/sub-watersheds. Also, it helps to identify the source and
flow of effluents within a natural drainage system. The watershed ap-
proach to monitor river pollution is the building block of the proposed
geospatial framework which can be implemented in urban industrial
catchments in other parts of the world.
The primary water sampling locations were mapped with respect to
a geographic reference system (WGS-84/ Universal Transverse Merca-
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
tor (UTM)) in GIS environment. In addition, the relative locations of
sampling points were validated with high resolution Google Earth Pro
imagery using an overlaying technique. Several water quality param-
eters, such as pH, TDS, BOD, COD, Color, Fluoride, Arsenic etc were
attributed to the sampling locations. The concentrations of some repre-
sentative WQ parameters have been presented using proportional sym-
bol method in Fig. 6. The visualization of WQ parameters reveals the
spatial distribution of the effluents which helps to identify its probable
sources in the study area.
The study area is highly urbanized and most of the urban settlements
are located in close proximity to the study area. Therefore, the land use
pattern in the study area was prepared and quantified from the Earth
Observation (EO) satellite image using a supervised classification ap-
proach (Fig. 7). The spectral signatures of prominent land use classes,
such as wastelands/open lands, built-up, forested area and water bod-
ies were taken for LULC map preparation. More than half of the study
area is covered by wastelands/open lands (55.3%) followed by built up
area (23.8%), forest (16.2%) and water bodies (4.7%). The water bod-
ies consist of natural streams, isolated ponds and minor reservoirs. The
built-up area is very dense due to high population density and its close
proximity to the Mumbai city. The LULC classification map showed the
distribution of urban areas that discharges a significant part of the do-
mestic/industrial effluents to the study area.
Further, the geospatial framework focuses on the high polluting re-
gions such as the ICs present within the study area. Each IC along with
their member industries were plotted with the help of cadastral infor-
mation (Fig. 8). The position/shape of cadastral plots were spatially
adjusted /rectified with the help of a high-resolution image obtained
from Google Earth. The type of industries, amount of effluent discharge
and its other properties were attributed in GIS platform. The mapping
of plot level information would help to identify the type of industry
and its effluent discharge to the nearby drainage system or CETPs in
the study area. However, it was found that the number of industries
listed in the secondary data had some discrepancies with respect to the
field information. In addition, an effort has been made to demonstrate
the concept of industrial catchment in ICs that contributes to particular
CETPs for better monitoring and management of pollution in the re-
gion. The industrial catchment is very similar to the watershed concept
where several industries discharge their effluents to a CETP which can
be delineated at a cadastral level. The present effort is to majorly un-
derstand primary/ secondary WQ data in urban industrial catchments
statistically and geospatially on near real-time basis in order to easily
identify impaired river stretches.
Conclusions
In the present study, physical exploration of the pollution situation
in the study area revealed its river stretches to be intensely polluted. For
systematic inventorization of secondary data including river water qual-
ity data, informational interviews were conducted with the concerned
stakeholders – state pollution control agency, STPs/ CETPs and indus-
trial development corporations pertaining to the study area, and urban
local bodies operating in the study area. Thorough analysis of the avail-
able secondary data was done and a corroborative comprehensive sum-
mertime (just before monsoon when river WQ is worst) monitoring in
the study area was also performed despite facing several practical prob-
lems. Challenges identified in pollution management included lack of
right infrastructure in sewage/ industrial waste treatment plants, safety
concerns for pollution monitoring equipment, dense cluster of industries
and surrounding slums discharging their semi-treated/untreated indus-
trial/domestic wastewater into the urban river watershed, fundamental
overwhelm induced by overlapping of responsibilities between stake-
holders, lack of effective coordination amongst stakeholder organisa-
tions, lack of awareness on usefulness of multivariate statistical analysis
and GIS technology in spatiotemporal river monitoring, balkanization,
data- and resource constraint situation due to unavailability of consis-
12
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100496
tent and reliable river data, and other routine stakeholder concerns. In
an effort to help manage their overwhelm and transparentize pollution
monitoring processes and in extension facilitate anthropic river pollu-
tion control, the use of the proposed geospatial framework is demon-
strated for spatiotemporal pollution monitoring that is tech-friendly and
can facilitate collaborative management of pollution issues in any urban
river system. This paper discusses the benefits of multivariate statisti-
cal analysis on WQ data and of integrating GIS in pollution monitoring
through application of remote sensing technology, spatial analysis and
role of IoT for near real-time information on water quality status quo
at impaired river stretches, particularly in urban industrial ecosystem.
Moreover, the unbiased data acquisition capabilities of remote sensing
technology and integration with field information in GIS platform will
enable policymakers to visualize the ground situation and take timely
decision toward better planning and management of river over indus-
trial catchment in urbanized ecosystem.
This is not a policy tool but a planning tool to facilitate GIS-based
decision-making, particularly for the ground technical staff. The pro-
posed framework is appropriate for decision support for pollution con-
trol agencies in study areas with data and resource constraints. Urban
river stakeholders in other LMICs will be able to relate to the chal-
lenges recognized in the current study. Applying the proposed geospatial
framework, that is capable of incorporating numerous WQ parameters
and sampling locations, would facilitate collating river WQ data con-
sistently and unbiasedly. The proposed GIS tool may be coupled with
optimization models to maintain and predict river WQ in future. With
the availability of spatial data and advanced GIS tools in open-source
domain (e.g., QGIS), the proposed geospatial framework can be repli-
cated for any urban river ecosystem with no cost. It is a given that con-
dition of rivers in highly urbanized areas, particularly in LMICs, with
increasing population density and disproportionate infrastructural ex-
pansion is deteriorating. This paper demonstrates the possibility and ad-
vantages of a GIS-based near real-time WQ monitoring of rivers flowing
through urbanized industrial catchments consisting of heavy built-up
areas, which will also prevent illegal wastewater dumping/accidental
spills with use of sensor-based systems; however, need of the hour are
consistent and reliable river WQ data for robust visualization and anal-
ysis. Unless aligned efforts from river stakeholders and use of geospatial
technology are made part of the solution, urban rivers will keep strug-
gling to stay alive. The proposed geospatial framework and recommen-
dations derived during execution of this study are universally applicable
to any river and have been presented as an effort in this direction to fa-
cilitate effective pollution mitigation of urban rivers.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None
Acknowledgments
The study was supported by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board
(Mumbai, Maharashtra, India). We acknowledge the support of Enviro
Analysts and Engineers Private Limited and Trans Thane Creek Waste
Management Association for helping us with multiple field samplings
and laboratory water-quality testing of river water samples. We also
thank our students Mr. Anagh Sawant, Dr. Harshit Mishra, Dr. Jitendra
Singh, Mr. Jitendra Sahani, Mr. Vishwas Singhal for accompanying us
during the taxing summer field sampling. We also wholeheartedly thank
the journal Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Berrin Tansel, and the anonymous re-
viewer for their time and relevant suggestions.
Data availability statement
Data generated and analysed during the study can be made available
from the corresponding author on request. Statistical analyses were per-
formed using Python and Tableau.
S. Sekharan, D.R. Samal, H.C. Phuleria et al.
Contributions
All authors contributed to the design of the study. AS provided the
secondary datasets. SS supervised the field campaigns for data collection
and performed all statistical data analyses, as conceptualised by SK. DS
performed all the GIS analyses and mapping. All authors participated in
discussion of results. SS and DS are jointly first authors and drafted the
manuscript with inputs from SK. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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