Assessing Risk and Sources of Heavy Metals in a Tropical River Basin: A Case Study of the Selangor River, Malaysia

Heavy metal concentration has become a major concern for water quality in rivers. Rapid urbanization and industrialization contribute to heavy metal concentrations in river water. This study aims to investigate the distribution, source, and environmental risk of heavy metals in the Selangor River basin in Malaysia. A total of 132 water samples were collected from 11 sampling stations on a monthly basis over a one-year period. Thirteen heavy metals were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). In order to identify the sources of heavy metals along the river basin, multivariate statistical techniques like principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were performed. It was found that As, Mn, and Fe exceeded the admissible limits of the…