Case Study: Florida International University protects South Florida water quality with Minitab

Maintaining South Florida’s Water Quality with Minitab

Florida International University’s Southeast Environmental Research Center (SERC) needed to make sense of 20 years of water quality data collected from hundreds of monitoring stations across South Florida. The team, led by Dr. Henry Briceño, had to analyze millions of data points including many “nondetects” to determine nutrient thresholds linked to harmful algal blooms. They used Minitab Statistical Software to help turn the complex dataset into actionable environmental insights.

With help from environmental statistician Dr. Dennis Helsel, FIU used Minitab’s censored data techniques, macros, multivariate analysis, and cumulative sum charts to process the data and identify water-type groupings and pollution thresholds. The result was a clearer understanding of nutrient levels that trigger algal blooms, enabling SERC to develop protective water quality criteria for South Florida’s waterways. Minitab helped make the analysis faster and more manageable, and the methods are now being considered for broader use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Florida International University

Henry Briceño

Research