This study was conducted to evaluate water quality in the Keum River estuary using principal component analysis. The results was summarized as follow;
Water quality in the Keum River estuary could be explained up to 70.40% by three factors which were included in the inffluent loading by the Keum River and Kyungpo cheon(38.99%), seasonal variation and organic matter pollution(19.05%), sediment resuspension and internal metabolism(12.35%).
For spatial variation of factor score, artificial pollutant loading is highest at st.1, below Keum River barrage, and decreases toward the outer sea.
For annual variation of factor score, factor 1 was highly related to artificial pollutant loading, and it was greatly increased in 1994. Also, organic matter pollution, sediment resuspension and internal metabolism were increased to every year.
is necessary to control the nutrient loading by Keum river and Kyongpo cheon for Water quality management of estuary.

• 김종구(문산대학교 해양환경공학과) | Jong-Gu Kim (Dept of Marine Environmenal Engineering, Kunsan National University,)