The purpose of this study is to evaluate the water quality and phytoplankton community in Bukhan River which account for 44.4 % of the total inflow into Lake Paldang, using multivariate statistical techniques (i.e., correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA)). Water samples were collected from March to November 2015 and the following parameters measured; water temperature, pH, DO, EC, SS, BOD, Chl-a, COD, TN, $NO_3-N$, $NH_3-N$, TP, DTP, $PO_4-P$, and phytoplankton community. The water quality of the main stream and the tributaries were not significantly different apart from the relatively high concentration of BOD, COD and nutrients recorded in MH. The highest cell density of Stephanodiscus hantzschii and Merismopedia glauca dominated phytoplankton was observed in PD. Based on the correlation analysis, total phytoplankton and cyanophyceae were highly correlated with BOD, COD and nutrients. PCA/FA resulted in four main factors accounting for 82.240 % of the total variance in the water quality dataset. The group of component 1 (TN, DTN, DO, $NO_3-N$, water temperature) and component 2 ($PO_4-P$, T-P, DTP, SS) were classified as nutrient element factor whereas component 3 (Chl-a, COD, BOD, $NH_3-N$, pH) was related to organic substances. Hence, the identification of the main potential environmental pollution factors in Bukhan River will help policy makers make better and more informed decisions on how to improve the water quality.