DAI-DEPUR: an integrated and distributed architecture for wastewater treatment plants supervision

The activated sludge process - the main biological technology usually applied towastewater treatment plants (WWTP) - directly depends on live beings (microorganisms), and therefore on unforeseen changes produced by them. It could be possible to get a good plant operation if the supervisory control system is able to react to the changes and deviations in the system and can take thenecessary actions to restore the system’s performance. These decisions are oftenbased both on physical, chemical, microbiological principles (suitable to bemodelled by conventional control algorithms) and on some knowledge (suitable to be modelled by knowledge-based systems). But one of the key problems in knowledge-based control systems design is the development of an architecture able to manage efficiently the different elements of the process (integrated architecture), to learn from previous cases (spec@c experimental knowledge) and to acquire the domain knowledge (general expert knowledge). These problems increase when the process belongs to an ill-structured domain and is composed of several complex operational units. Therefore, an integrated and distributed AIarchitecture seems to be a good choice. This paper proposes an integrated and distributed supervisory multi-level architecture for the supervision of WWTP, that overcomes some of the main troubles of classical control techniques and those of knowledge-based systems applied to real world systems

Spatio-Temporal Changes in the Wetland Ecosystem of Cochin City using Remote Sensing and GIS

Urban developments have exerted immense pressure on wetlands. Urban areas are normally centers of commercial activity and continue to attract migrants in large numbers in search of employment from different areas. As a result, habitations keep coming up in the natural areas / flood plains. This is happening in various Indian cities and towns and large habitations are coming up in low-lying areas, often encroaching even over drainage channels. In some cases, houses are constructed even on top of nallahs and drains. In the case of Kochi the situation is even worse as the base of the urban development itself stands on a completely reclaimed island. Also the topography and geology demanded more reclamation of land when the city developed as an agglomerative cluster. Cochin is a coastal settlement interspersed with a large backwater system and fringed on the eastern side by laterite-capped low hills from which a number of streams drain into the backwater system. The ridge line of the eastern low hills provides a welldefined watershed delimiting Cochin basin which help to confine the environmental parameters within a physical limit. This leads to an obvious conclusion that if physiography alone is considered, the western flatland is ideal for urban development. However it will result in serious environmental deterioration, as it comprises mainly of wetland and for availability of land there has to be large scale filling up of these wetlands which includes shallow mangrove-fringed water sheets, paddy fields, Pokkali fields, estuary etc.Chapter 1 School 4 of Environmental Studies The urban boundaries of Cochin are expanding fast with a consequent over-stretching of the existing fabric of basic amenities and services. Urbanisation leads to the transformation of agricultural land into built-up areas with the concomitant problems regarding water supply, drainage, garbage and sewage disposal etc. Many of the environmental problems of Cochin are hydrologic in origin; like water-logging / floods, sedimentation and pollution in the water bodies as well as shoreline erosion

La Depuradora del segle XXI

A partir de la reflexió sobre la situació actual i futura de les depuradores d’aigües, s’estudia l’obtenció d’un model conceptual de possible depuradora del segle XXI, entenent l’EDAR del segle XXI com a una instal•lació que gestioni de manera òptima les aigües residuals urbanes d’una població mitjana. (El cas pràctic es concreta en l’EDAR de Figueres)

Anàlisi comparativa dels processos emergents sharon i anammox per al tractament d’aigües amb una alta càrrega de nitrogen

Estudi de tractaments innovadors en aigües residuals amb elevada concentració de nitrogen mitjançant la tecnologia ANAMMOX (Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation) i SHARON i posterior anàlisi teòrica de la gestió dels fangs residuals d’una EDAR

Proposta de millora de la qualitat de les aigües residuals de Sant Martí Sescorts

Diagnòsi de les aigües residuals de sant martí Sescorts i proposta de millora de la qualitat d' aquestes aigues residuals

Gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals [versió html]

Sota el títol Gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals trobem un llibre que pretén ser una guia útil per a la comunitat que es mou a l’entorn de la gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals. El document es troba estructurat en 5 capítols, el primer dels quals és una presentació de la problemàtica associada a les aigües residuals, així com de les possibles actuacions a portar a terme per a solucionar aquesta qüestió. Ja entrant en la matèria trobem els capítols 2 i 3 on es descriu en detall el sistema de clavegueram i les diferents tecnologies de depuració disponibles. No més important que el disseny d’un sistema de sanejament, és la seva gestió, i per aquest motiu en el capítol 4 s’hi recullen les pautes bàsiques d’operació i manteniment. Finalment, el darrer dels capítols contempla el destí final de les aigües ja depurades: el medi receptor o bé la reutilització d’aquestes

Gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals [versió comprimida]

Sota el títol Gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals trobem un llibre que pretén ser una guia útil per a la comunitat que es mou a l’entorn de la gestió i tractament d’aigües residuals. El document es troba estructurat en 5 capítols, el primer dels quals és una presentació de la problemàtica associada a les aigües residuals, així com de les possibles actuacions a portar a terme per a solucionar aquesta qüestió. Ja entrant en la matèria trobem els capítols 2 i 3 on es descriu en detall el sistema de clavegueram i les diferents tecnologies de depuració disponibles. No més important que el disseny d’un sistema de sanejament, és la seva gestió, i per aquest motiu en el capítol 4 s’hi recullen les pautes bàsiques d’operació i manteniment. Finalment, el darrer dels capítols contempla el destí final de les aigües ja depurades: el medi receptor o bé la reutilització d’aquestes

Implementació d’un sistema de control avançat en una estació depuradora d’aigües residuals

Aquest projecte té com a objectiu la implementació d'un sistema de control avançat en una estació depuradora d'aigües residuals a la Vall del Ges, Torelló

Prediction of the bulking phenomenon in wastewater treatment plants

The control and prediction of wastewater treatment plants poses an important goal: to avoid breaking the environmental balance by always keeping the system in stable operating conditions. It is known that qualitative information — coming from microscopic examinations and subjective remarks — has a deep influence on the activated sludge process. In particular, on the total amount of effluent suspended solids, one of the measures of overall plant performance. The search for an input–output model of this variable and the prediction of sudden increases (bulking episodes) is thus a central concern to ensure the fulfillment of current discharge limitations. Unfortunately, the strong interrelation between variables, their heterogeneity and the very high amount of missing information makes the use of traditional techniques difficult, or even impossible. Through the combined use of several methods — rough set theory and artificial neural networks, mainly — reasonable prediction models are found, which also serve to show the different importance of variables and provide insight into the process dynamics

Application of a support system to the design of wastewater treatment plants

This paper presents a case study that explores the advantages that can be derived from the use of a design support system during the design of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). With this objective in mind a simplified but plausible WWTP design case study has been generated with KBDS, a computer-based support system that maintains a historical record of the design process. The study shows how, by employing such a historical record, it is possible to: (1) rank different design proposals responding to a design problem; (2) study the influence of changing the weight of the arguments used in the selection of the most adequate proposal; (3) take advantage of keywords to assist the designer in the search of specific items within the historical records; (4) evaluate automatically the compliance of alternative design proposals with respect to the design objectives; (5) verify the validity of previous decisions after the modification of the current constraints or specifications; (6) re-use the design records when upgrading an existing WWTP or when designing similar facilities; (7) generate documentation of the decision making process; and (8) associate a variety of documents as annotations to any component in the design history. The paper also shows one possible future role of design support systems as they outgrow their current reactive role as repositories of historical information and start to proactively support the generation of new knowledge during the design process

DAI-DEPUR: an integrated and distributed architecture for wastewater treatment plants supervision

The activated sludge process - the main biological technology usually applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) - directly depends on live beings (microorganisms), and therefore on unforeseen changes produced by them. It could be possible to get a good plant operation if the supervisory control system is able to react to the changes and deviations in the system and can take the necessary actions to restore the system’s performance. These decisions are often based both on physical, chemical, microbiological principles (suitable to be modelled by conventional control algorithms) and on some knowledge (suitable to be modelled by knowledge-based systems). But one of the key problems in knowledge-based control systems design is the development of an architecture able to manage efficiently the different elements of the process (integrated architecture), to learn from previous cases (spec@c experimental knowledge) and to acquire the domain knowledge (general expert knowledge). These problems increase when the process belongs to an ill-structured domain and is composed of several complex operational units. Therefore, an integrated and distributed AI architecture seems to be a good choice. This paper proposes an integrated and distributed supervisory multi-level architecture for the supervision of WWTP, that overcomes some of the main troubles of classical control techniques and those of knowledge-based systems applied to real world systems

Uso da tecnologia de troca iônica no tratamento de águas contaminadas com Nitrato do Aqüífero Dunas-Barreiras, Natal/RN-Brasil

The city of Natal comprises an area of about 170 km² (65,63 squares miles). The Dunas-Barreiras Aquifer is the most important reservoir of the coastal basin of RN. It is being responsible for the water supplying of about 70% of the population, however, due to the sewage disposal system by cesspools and drains, it is presently affected in a great extent by nitrates contamination. Thus, the present work proposes to research the utilization of contaminated water by nitrates of this fountainhead and find cost of the potable water through the ionic exchange technology. This technology consists in the removal of mineral salts by the exchange of cations for one ion of hydrogen (H+), through the passage of water by cationic resin bed and, secondly, by the exchange of the anions for hydroxyl ions (OH-) through a anionic resin bed. The obtained results have showed the waters derived from fountains, big water holes and shallow wells were microbiologically contaminated, while the waters derived from deep wells (above 70 m 76,58 yards) were free of contamination. Thus, only these ones are suitable to the use of ionic technology. The experiments were conducted with the resin IMAC-HP-555 such as kinetic, thermodynamic, and adsorption by fixed bed studies, being obtained several project variables for the experimental column, as follow: work temperature of 25oC; resin maximum capacity maximum e mean of adsorption ==0,01692 g NO3-1/g R e 0,0110 g NO3-1/g R, respectively. On the experimental column were performed breakthrough tests which pointed for an average ideal average speed of work of 13.2 m / h, with an average efficiency of 45% of adsorption, an optimal concentration of NaCl desorption of 8%, and an ideal desorption time of 80 minutes for the equilibrium conditions of water from the Dunas-Barreiras aquifer. Scale projection for ion-exchange column for denitrification, for these variables, using a computer modeling programme, to project the column of ion exchange ROREX-420/2000, obtained a cost for the drinking water denitrified by this system of R$ 0,16 / m3

Coeficientes de incidência do dengue e sua relação com os diferenciais intra-urbanos segundo condições de vida no município do Natal, Rio Grande do Norte

This study sprang from the hypothesis that spatial variations in the morbidity rate for dengue fever within the municipality of Natal are related to intra-city socioeconomic and environmental variations. The objective of the project was to classify the different suburbs of Natal according to their living conditions and establish if there was any correlation between this classification and the incidence rate for dengue fever, with the aim of enabling public health planners to better control this disease. Data on population density, access to safe drinking water, rubbish collection, sewage disposal facilities, income level, education and the incidence of dengue fever during the years 2001 and 2003 was drawn from the Brazilian Demographic Census 2000 and from the Reportable Disease Notification System -SINAN. The study is presented here in the form of two papers, corresponding to the types of analysis performed: a classification of the urban districts into quartiles according to the living conditions which exist there, in the first article; and the incidence of dengue fever in each of these quartiles, in the second. By applying factorial analysis to the chosen socioeconomic and environmental indicators for the year 2000, a compound index of living condition (ICV) was obtained. On the basis of this index, it was possible to classify the urban districts into quartiles. On undertaking this grouping (paper 1), a heterogeneous distribution of living conditions was found across the city. As to the incidence rate for dengue fever (paper 2), it was discovered that the quartile identified as having the best living conditions presented incidence rates of 15.62 and 15.24 per 1000 inhabitants respectively in the years 2001 and 2003; whereas the quartile representing worst living conditions showed incidence rates of 25.10 and 10.32 for the comparable periods. The results suggest that dengue fever occurs in all social classes, and that its incidence is not related in any evident way to the chosen formula for living conditions

Faecal contamination (viral and bacteria) detection in groundwater used for drinking purposes in São Paulo, Brazil

This project has been developed to evaluate the possible relationship between the cesspit (pit latrine) in as far as it degrades the quality of underground water. Its importance is due to the fact that in the rural communities in the State of São Paulo (Brazil) this type of cesspit is very common as a means of sewage disposal and these communities use underground water for their supply of drinking water. Rural properties distributed over the rural area in the municipality of São José do Rio Preto were selected. A preliminary study was then set up to determine the social situation and health of the households as well as qualitative evaluations on the type of water supply and sewage disposal of these communities. Campaigns of water sampling then followed and laboratory analyses of water taken from wells were carried out. Parameters were set up to evaluate the potability according to Brazilian legislation (2004) paying attention to microbiologic (coliforms, Crytosporidium sp., and adenovirus). The analyses showed evidence of possible interaction between the wells and the sewage effluents and drainage in these communities. A PCR reaction to detect adenovirus showed a presence in 53.3% of the samples. The tests for the detection of Cryotosporidium sp all showed a negative result.

Evaluation of metals in water and sediments of micro-basins in the city of Americana, São Paulo state, Brazil

Water pollution found in major rivers in Brazil has its origin from urban sewage discharges and industrial effluent, carried out by small streams and rivers crossing cities. Therefore, studies related to hydrographic micro-basins offer the opportunity to establish environmental management strategies for restoring water resources, based on diagnosis of the water quality. Despite this understanding, few studies in urban and rural areas have been performed in a systematic manner in Brazilian micro-basins. The main goal of this research was to diagnose the water resources in micro-basins in the region of the district of Americana, São Paulo state, Brazil, through the quantification of metals in water and sediment. The methodology was based on the investigation of metals (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn), in four micro-basins, determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The most significant result showed high concentration levels of chromium (969 μg L-1), downstream of the discharge of sewage from the city of Nova Odessa. This concentration in the river was above the allowed limit of Brazilian regulation agency (50 μg L-1 for Cr). Also high levels of Cr were found in the sediment (98.9 μg g-1) collected at the same monitored site. These results are important indicators of environmental performance and anthropogenic activities to help the government establish environmental management strategies aimed at the reduction of water pollution. © 2013 WIT Press.