Sewage treatment efficiencies estimation for urban areas located in the River Pardo’s watershed by associating nonlinear programming and water quality modeling

Estimating efficiencies required for sewage treatment plants within a river watershed, where there are usually multiple sewage discharges and water withdrawals points in watercourses, presenting different quality conditions and sewage assimilation capacities, is a complex task. In this context, combined optimization techniques and water quality modeling can be important tools to support sewage treatment efficiencies appropriation processes. In the present paper, QUAL-UFMG water quality model and Nonlinear Programming (NLP) are jointly applied to sewage treatment levels selection for the river Pardo’s (watercourse located in Espirito Santo State, Southern region, Brazil) watershed different urban areas. Four different optimization models were tested for estimating the minimum organic matter removal efficiencies. The results indicate strong dependence between the estimated minimum organic matter removal efficiencies within the watershed and equity measures incorporated in the optimization models.