Interactive analyser for understanding water quality problems in distribution systems

The identification of causes of water quality problems in distribution systems (DS) is often a difficult task because of the wide variety of factors that may be involved in describing their origin and propagation (treatment breakthrough, intrusion, transport, microbial regrowth, etc.). An integrated approach, along with an “interactive database analyser”, is proposed to better explain water quality problems occurring in DS. The approach is based on the consideration of various types of data, on multi-criterion database queries (investigation of DS events within specific spatial, hydraulic and temporal frames) and on data visualisation, which facilitates the analysis and identification of the probable cause (or causes) of the problem.