An appraisal of data collection, analysis, and reporting adopted for water quality assessment: A case of Nigeria water quality research

Abstract

The appropriate acquisition and processing of water quality data are crucial for water resource management. As such, published articles on water quality monitoring and assessment are meant to convey essential and reliable information to water quality experts, decision-makers, researchers, students, and the public. The implication is that such information must emanate from data obtained and analysed in an up-to-date, scientifically sound manner. Thus, inappropriate data analysis and reporting techniques could yield misleading results and mar the endeavours of achieving error-free conclusions. This study utilises the findings on water quality assessment in Nigeria over the last 20 years to reveal the likely trends in water quality research regarding data collection, data analysis, and reporting for physicochemical, bacteriological parameters, and trace organics. A total of 123 Web of Science and quartile ranked (Q1-Q4) published articles involving water quality assessment in Nigeria were analysed. Results indicated shortcomings in various aspects of data analysis and reporting. Consequently, we use simulated heatmaps and graphs to illustrate preferred ways of analysing, reporting, and visualising some regularly used descriptive and inferential statistics of water quality variables. Finally, we highlight alternative approaches to the customarily applied water quality assessment methods in Nigeria and emphasise other areas of deficiency that need attention for improved water quality research.

Radiological Safety Assessment of Agricultural Soil within the Bitumen Belt of Ondo State Nigeria, Using RESRAD-ONSITE and RESRAD-BIOTA Codes

“…Helsel et al, [25] and Ewuzie et al, [26] provided a description of the sufficiency, trustworthiness, and representation of environmental data. The peak area for each energy in the spectrum of gamma spectroscopy was used to compute the activity concentrations in each sample using equation 11 [27].…”

Assessing Some Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Luubara Creek in Niger Delta, Nigeria

“…Mustapha (2008) suggested that changes in these characteristics provide valuable information about water quality and its impact on the functionality and biodiversity of an aquatic ecosystem. Ewuzie et al (2021) emphasized that the primary sources of water in the South-South region of Nigeria are boreholes, shallow wells, creeks, and rivers, and studies have been conducted on their water qualities (Owoyemi et al, 2019;Ihunwo et al, 2020;Ocheli et al, 2020;Owamah, 2020). Research in the South-West focused on rivers, lagoons, ground waters, lakes, and streams (Odukoya et al, 2017;Ezemonye et al, 2019;Ebele et al, 2020;Gbadebo, 2020;Ogunbanwo et al, 2020), while studies in the South-East region evaluated the physicochemical factors of ground waters such as dug-wells, boreholes, springs, streams, and lakes, with few studies on rivers (Chukwuka et al, 2019;Egbueri et al, 2019;Alum & Okoye, 2020;Ewuzie et al, 2020;Naganje et al, 2020).…”