The use of generalized initial conditions for a statistical analysis of stream pollution

Abstract

This thesis is a statistical study using generalized initial conditions in the form of distributions to find the downstream probability distributions of pollution (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO) for particular times of travel t. The analysis and the included computer program (Appendix I) considers changes in stream parameters and the introduction of major pollution sources at several points downstream.

The results were based on all the assumptions that the previous works of Dobbins (2) and Thayer (6) had made. In addition the assumption of independence of the_ two variables (BOD and DO) was necessary to make in order to obtain the DO marginal probability distribution from the appropriate joint distribution. A study of independence seemed to reveal that this assumption did not weaken the quality of the results when compared to previous works.