ABSTRACT:

Surface water quality has been monitored in southern Peru for over a century, but the information is only available from various organizations with considerable delay after official requests. A substantial portion of the data have not been quality assured and were available in difficult-to-access formats such as scanned PDF documents, which made it difficult to evaluate water quality trends. In this project, we gathered all available surface water quality information from five watersheds in the Arequipa Region of southern Peru: Camaná, Chili, Ocoña, Tambo, and Yauca. The effort required entry of more than 130 thousand records of general chemistry, nutrients, and parameters, metals, organic compounds, and biological taxa from 276 stations. The water quality records span the years 2012 to 2021 for most data, but Chili does include data starting from 1905. This paper describes how the water quality data were assimilated and provides one master Excel database so that the surface water quality data can be used for research and decision making.

ABSTRACT:

Surface water quality has been monitored in southern Peru for over a century, but the information is only available from various organizations with considerable delay after official requests. A substantial portion of the data have not been quality assured and were available in difficult-to-access formats such as scanned PDF documents, which made it difficult to evaluate water quality trends. In this project, we gathered all available surface water quality information from five watersheds in the Arequipa Region of southern Peru: Camaná, Chili, Ocoña, Tambo, and Yauca. The effort required entry of more than 130 thousand records of general chemistry, nutrients, and parameters, metals, organic compounds, and biological taxa from 276 stations. The water quality records span the years 2012 to 2021 for most data, but Chili does include data starting from 1905. This paper describes how the water quality data were assimilated and provides one master Excel database so that the surface water quality data can be used for research and decision making.

ABSTRACT:

Surface water quality has been monitored in southern Peru for over a century, but the information is only available from various organizations with considerable delay after official requests. A substantial portion of the data have not been quality assured and were available in difficult-to-access formats such as scanned PDF documents, which made it difficult to evaluate water quality trends. In this project, we gathered all available surface water quality information from five watersheds in the Arequipa Region of southern Peru: Camaná, Chili, Ocoña, Tambo, and Yauca. The effort required entry of more than 130 thousand records of general chemistry, nutrients, and parameters, metals, organic compounds, and biological taxa from 247 stations. The water quality records span the years 2010 to 2021. This paper describes how the water quality data were assimilated and provides one master Excel database so that the surface water quality data can be used for research and decision making

ABSTRACT:

Surface water quality in southern Peru has been monitored for over a century. However, the information is distributed among different organizations, in different formats, and is available with considerable delay after official request. A substantial portion of the data has not been quality assured. Much of the data is available in difficult-to-access formats such as scanned PDFs. The diverse heterogeneity of the data and format make it very difficult to use it to conduct meaningful water quality analysis. In this remarkable effort, we gathered all available surface water quality information from five main watersheds in the Arequipa Region of southern Peru: Camaná, Chili, Ocoña, Tambo, and Yauca. The effort required manual entry of more than 130 thousand records (distributed among 29 general chemistry and nutrient parameters, 49 metals, 20 bacterium types, and 77 organic types) from 276 stations (1905-2021, the majority being generated in the last two decades) that were merged into one master Excel database to be available to the general public for further analysis. With this new Excel database, surface water quality information is now available in an organized and easy-to-work-with format, contributing to better research and further decision making for a better environment.

ABSTRACT:

Surface water quality in southern Peru has been monitored for over a century. However, the information is distributed among different organizations, in different formats, and is available with considerable delay after official request. A substantial portion of the data has not been quality assured. Much of the data is available in difficult-to-access formats such as scanned PDFs. The diverse heterogeneity of the data and format make it very difficult to use it to conduct meaningful water quality analysis. In this remarkable effort, we gathered all available surface water quality information from five main watersheds in the Arequipa Region of southern Peru: Camaná, Chili, Ocoña, Tambo, and Yauca. The effort required manual entry of more than 130 thousand records (distributed among 29 general chemistry and nutrient parameters, 49 metals, 20 bacterium types, and 77 organic types) from 276 stations (1905-2021, the majority being generated in the last two decades) that were merged into one master Excel database to be available to the general public for further analysis. With this new Excel database, surface water quality information is now available in an organized and easy-to-work-with format, contributing to better research and further decision making for a better environment.