The pathways through which water quality can be compromised in the distribution system may be
classified into five major categories: intrusion of contaminants into the distribution system; regrowth of
bacteria in pipes and storage tanks; water treatment failure; leaching of chemicals or corrosion products
from system components (pipes, storage tanks, liners, etc.); and, permeation of organic compounds through
plastic pipe and pipe components in the system. The characterization and quantification of these risk factors
is complex and highly uncertain. The current inability to precisely quantify these risks may require the usage
of a quantitative-qualitative framework.
In this paper a framework for aggregative risk analysis is proposed for water quality failure in the
distribution system. Each basic risk item is expressed by fuzzy numbers, which are derived from the product
of the likelihood of a failure event and its consequence. The fuzzy numbers capture vagueness inherent in the
qualitative (linguistic) definitions. A multi-stage hierarchical model for water quality failure is developed. An
analytic hierarchy process is used for estimating the weighting scheme for grouping risk items. The
framework is demonstrated with a simplified structure of risk hierarchies for water quality in distribution
systems. Includes 11 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 370 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 06/15/2003 |
