We employ a number of tools in this work. Although the program output is text-based and numeric, plots can be developed from the output to provide increased understanding of the system under study. Examples of useful plots developed from MinteqA2 can be found here.
Statistical techniques can provide valuable insights into data.
However, rather than just developing a hypothesis and then testing it with a few common statistical techniques applied to the data, it is often better to evaluate the data for structure, trends and patterns using exploratory data analysis. This approach uses few pre-conceived assumptions and builds each step of an analysis upon the knowledge generated by the earlier steps. This increases the understanding of the data and allows application of statistical analyses appropriate to the data structure. Examples of DataDesk applied to ground water monitoring data can be found here.