Application of Chemical and Biological Indices to Water Quality Assessment of the Nile River at Assiut City, Egypt

Abstract

Chemical and biological indices provide a comprehensive picture of monitoring and evaluating water quality. There are few studies that use biological indices to assess the freshwater quality in Egypt. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the water quality of the Nile River and the treated wastewater canal at Assiut City, Egypt, using the biotic indices that depend on macroinvertebrates (NBPI) or zooplankton (WZI), and compare the results with the physicochemical index (WQI). During the summer of 2022 and winter of 2023, water and invertebrate samples were collected from four different sites. The collected data of physicochemical parameters, zooplankton, and macroinvertebrates were used for calculating the investigated water quality indices. The results revealed significant differences between the collected samples for all studied indices. The Nile Biotic Pollution Index (NBPI) and Wetland Zooplankton Index (WZI) showed significant regression with the Water Quality Index. NBPI index was highly significant regression with WQI, which indicates that macroinvertebrates are more suitable than zooplankton for assessment of water quality