Fuzzy comprehensive assessment and multivariate statistical techniques including cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, principal component analysis, and factor analysis were applied to analyze the water quality status of Yuqiao Reservoir Basin, North China, for assessing its spatio-temporal variations and identifying potential pollution sources. In this paper, we considered data for 14 water quality parameters collected during 1990–2004 at 7 water quality monitoring sites. The results of fuzzy comprehensive assessment revealed that water quality in Yuqiao Reservoir Basin showed a downtrend from 1990 to 2001 with fluctuation, and a slowly upward trend after 2001. The major water quality belonged to Class III and IV. Besides, hierarchical cluster analysis divided 7 monitoring sites into two groups (Group A and B), and 12 months into three periods (low-flow (LF), normal-flow (NF), and high-flow (HF) period). Temp, pH, SS, T-har, DO, NO3-N and TP were identified as significant variables affecting spatial variations, and Temp, pH and NO2-N were identified as significant variables affecting temporal variations by discriminant analysis. Factor analysis identified four latent pollution sources for water quality variations: nutrient pollution, organic pollution, inorganic pollution, and natural pollution. Moreover, for Group A regions, pollution inputs mainly came from domestic wastewater and industrial sewage. For Group B regions, it is more likely that water pollution resulted from the combined effects of domestic wastewater, hospital wastewater, agriculture runoff, and fishpond discharge, as well as the incoming water from upstream. |