Relationships between water quality parameters in rivers and lakes: BOD5, COD, NBOPs, and TOC

Biological oxygen demand (BOD5) or chemical oxygen demand (COD) analysis is widely used to evaluate organic pollutants in water systems as well as the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants. However, both analysis methods have restrictions such as being insensitive, imprecise, time-consuming, and the production of chemical waste. Therefore, total organic carbon (TOC) analysis for organic pollutants has been considered for an alternative analysis instead of BOD5 or COD. Several studies have investigated the replacement of BOD5 or COD with TOC in wastewater samples; however, few studies have investigated the relationships between water quality parameters in rivers and lakes. Therefore, this study evaluated the relationships between BOD5, COD, or NBOPs and TOC by the analysis of national water quality monitoring data of rivers and lakes for 5 years. High correlation coefficients (r) of 0.87 and 0.66 between BOD5 and TOC (p < 0.05) were obtained for rivers and lakes, respectively, and strong correlation coefficients (r) of 0.93 and 0.75 were observed between COD and TOC (p < 0.05) for rivers and lakes, respectively. The correlation coefficient (r) between NBOPs and TOC was 0.93 for rivers and 0.72 for lakes. The coefficients of determination (R2) were 0.75 and 0.44 between BOD5 and TOC for rivers and lakes as well as were 0.87 and 0.57 between COD and TOC for rivers and lakes, respectively. The coefficient of determination (R2) between NBOPs and TOC was 0.73 for rivers and 0.52 for lakes.

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