Data Analysis

This chapter considers the analysis of observed environmental data specifically in the case of water quality. Although data analysis procedures for air quality and solid waste properties may differ in the types of data they require and use (i.e., spatial and temporal frequencies, variables monitored, etc.), the basic approach remains the same as that used for analyzing water quality. Therefore, the approach described in the following sections may as well be used to investigate other environmental processes. The methods reviewed are the most common techniques employed in statistical data analyses. The emphasis here is on how these techniques perform in the case of messy water quality data with short sample sizes, missing values, and gaps within the series.