DETERMINING WATERSHED SUB‐AREAS WITH PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS¹

Abstract

Principal component analysis is used to incorporate the effects of several socioeconomic variables into an index of watershed socioeconomic change. The index is then used as a basis for delineating economic sub‐areas within the Tennessee River basin.

RELATING TRENDS OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS TO TRENDS OF WATER‐QUALITY CONSTITUENTS1

“…Principal component analysis (Johnson and Wichem, 1982) has been widely accepted as a multivariate technique in diverse fields of biological, physical and social sciences, and water resources (e.g., Mielke et al, 1972;Chappell, 1976;Molteni et al, 1983;Lins, 1985;Saad and Turgeon, 1988;and Hooper and Peters, 1989…”

DISCUSSION1

“…Yet the regionalization method adopted relates only tangentially to water resources development. In an earlier version of the paper, Chappell did not even mention the relationship of the sub-regions delineated to water resources development (Chappell, 1974). What may well be the major task of users of the factor analysis approach in the future is to link the variables which are analyzed to the particular concept or problem under investigation.…”