Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index
Evaluating the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their impact on receiving surface water bodies is a complex and highly significant task due to its regulatory implications for both environmental and public health. The monitoring of many water quality parameters related to the com...
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MDPI AG
2024-09-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/18/8467 |
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| author | Ivan Benkov Stefan Tsakovski Tony Venelinov |
| author_facet | Ivan Benkov Stefan Tsakovski Tony Venelinov |
| author_sort | Ivan Benkov |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Evaluating the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their impact on receiving surface water bodies is a complex and highly significant task due to its regulatory implications for both environmental and public health. The monitoring of many water quality parameters related to the compliance of treated wastewater with environmental standards has led to the development of a unitless metric, the Wastewater Quality Index (WWQI), which serves as a practical tool for regulatory authorities. The aim of this research is to propose an appropriate WWQI methodology, incorporating a set of water quality indicators and a weighting approach, to evaluate wastewater effluents under operational monitoring. In this study, WWQI was successfully applied to access the operation of 21 WWTPs’ effluents within a single monitoring campaign, outside the mandatory monitoring schemes. The WWQI was computed for physical-chemical parameters including chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), electrical conductivity (EC) and pH, priority substances (Cd, Ni and Pb) and a specific contaminant (Cr) using the weighted approach in the WWQI calculation, based on equal weighting, expert judgement and PCA weighing using factor loadings. The three approaches give similar results for the calculated WWQI. The expert judgment approach is more suitable for evaluating WWTP performance during a single monitoring campaign due to its simplicity compared to the PCA-based approach and its ability to prioritize specific water quality parameters over an equal weightage method. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-017e3fd3a1f4447fa311f7fb901da85f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-017e3fd3a1f4447fa311f7fb901da85f2025-01-07T11:11:38ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172024-09-011418846710.3390/app14188467Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality IndexIvan Benkov0Stefan Tsakovski1Tony Venelinov2“Georgi Benkovski” Air Force Academy, 1 St. St. Cyril and Methodius Str., 5855 Dolna Mitropolia, BulgariaFaculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, 1164 Sofia, BulgariaFaculty of Hydraulic Engineering, University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, 1046 Sofia, BulgariaEvaluating the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their impact on receiving surface water bodies is a complex and highly significant task due to its regulatory implications for both environmental and public health. The monitoring of many water quality parameters related to the compliance of treated wastewater with environmental standards has led to the development of a unitless metric, the Wastewater Quality Index (WWQI), which serves as a practical tool for regulatory authorities. The aim of this research is to propose an appropriate WWQI methodology, incorporating a set of water quality indicators and a weighting approach, to evaluate wastewater effluents under operational monitoring. In this study, WWQI was successfully applied to access the operation of 21 WWTPs’ effluents within a single monitoring campaign, outside the mandatory monitoring schemes. The WWQI was computed for physical-chemical parameters including chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), electrical conductivity (EC) and pH, priority substances (Cd, Ni and Pb) and a specific contaminant (Cr) using the weighted approach in the WWQI calculation, based on equal weighting, expert judgement and PCA weighing using factor loadings. The three approaches give similar results for the calculated WWQI. The expert judgment approach is more suitable for evaluating WWTP performance during a single monitoring campaign due to its simplicity compared to the PCA-based approach and its ability to prioritize specific water quality parameters over an equal weightage method.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/18/8467wastewater treatment plantwastewater quality indexPCAequal weightsexpert judgement |
| spellingShingle | Ivan Benkov Stefan Tsakovski Tony Venelinov Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index Applied Sciences wastewater treatment plant wastewater quality index PCA equal weights expert judgement |
| title | Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index |
| title_full | Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index |
| title_fullStr | Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index |
| title_short | Assessment of the Water Quality of WWTPs’ Effluents through the Use of Wastewater Quality Index |
| title_sort | assessment of the water quality of wwtps effluents through the use of wastewater quality index |
| topic | wastewater treatment plant wastewater quality index PCA equal weights expert judgement |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/18/8467 |
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