ANALYSIS OF RAINWATER QUALITY VARIABILITY ON MESOSCALE - CASE OF THE MONTREAL-ISLAND

During summer of 1989, a network for the analysis of spatial variabili ty of rainwater quality was operated on Montreal Island. Six bulk samp lers distributed on the territory were used for this purpose. A total of 97 storm-station events have been analyzed for pH, conductivity, To tal Organic Carbon, nitrate, sulphate, calcium and magnesium. A canoni cal discriminant analysis shows that as a whole, there is no statistic ally significant discrimination between stations. However, Tukey's tes t for means shows that mean pH is significantly different between down town and peripheric stations. The pH is higher in downtown. Finally, a variance analysis shows that variations with respect to time are grea ter than those on a spatial basis. Thus, the Montreal Island can be co nsidered as spatially homogeneous for most rainwater quality parameter s.