Appraisal of water quality indices for service reservoirs in water distribution networks

The use of water quality indices to aggregate pollution loads in rivers has been widely studied, with researchers using various sub-indices and aggregation methods. These have been used to combine various quality variables at a sampling point in a river into an overall water quality index to compare the state of water quality in different river reaches. Service reservoirs in a water distribution network, like rivers, have complex mixing mechanisms, are subjected to various water quality variables and are variably sized and sited. Water quality indices and the relevant sub-indices are formulated here and applied to service reservoirs within a water distribution network. This is in an attempt to compare holistically the performance of service reservoirs in solutions of optimisation algorithms with regards to water quality.