Drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) are facing emerging challenges affecting raw water quality. In addition, the new regulatory framework (EU 2184/2020) sets stricter limits for turbidity and percentile statistics for continuous compliance, demanding greater robustness of the treatment processes. To achieve this aim, this study proposes a turbidity robustness index (TRI), named TRI95B, to be used as a warning tool for detecting deviations from water quality standards. TRI95B has been compared with the TRIs existing in the literature. Furthermore, the TRI95B validation has been performed by a three-year monitoring dataset of a full-scale DWTP. The proposed TRI95B index has two key novelties compared to the existing indices required for adapting to the new drinking water regulation: i. introduces the 95th percentile as a statistical indicator; ii. considers an additional term that sets an alert when a threshold value is exceeded. The comparison results suggest a better correspondence to the real plant performances of TRI95B than the other TRIs. Indeed, both the sensitivity and specificity of TRI95B were significantly higher than the other TRIs, indicating a better capacity to correctly classify both positive and negative cases. Moreover, while the previous TRIs identify a critical operating condition when the turbidity goal was significantly exceeded, TRI95B highlights a failure condition at a lower discrepancy. Therefore, TRI95B is also able to identify short-duration and low magnitude failures, thus coping with the purpose of the new regulation for drinking water.

De Marines, F., Corsino, S.F., Cosenza, A., Capodici, M., Torregrossa, M., Viviani, G. (2025). A modified robustness index for assessing operational performance of drinking water treatment plants: a comparative study within a new regulatory framework. WATER RESEARCH, 268(Part B) [10.1016/j.watres.2024.122668].

A modified robustness index for assessing operational performance of drinking water treatment plants: a comparative study within a new regulatory framework

De Marines, Federica
Primo
;
Corsino, Santo Fabio
Secondo
;
Cosenza, Alida;Capodici, Marco;Torregrossa, Michele;Viviani, Gaspare
2025-01-01

Abstract

Drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) are facing emerging challenges affecting raw water quality. In addition, the new regulatory framework (EU 2184/2020) sets stricter limits for turbidity and percentile statistics for continuous compliance, demanding greater robustness of the treatment processes. To achieve this aim, this study proposes a turbidity robustness index (TRI), named TRI95B, to be used as a warning tool for detecting deviations from water quality standards. TRI95B has been compared with the TRIs existing in the literature. Furthermore, the TRI95B validation has been performed by a three-year monitoring dataset of a full-scale DWTP. The proposed TRI95B index has two key novelties compared to the existing indices required for adapting to the new drinking water regulation: i. introduces the 95th percentile as a statistical indicator; ii. considers an additional term that sets an alert when a threshold value is exceeded. The comparison results suggest a better correspondence to the real plant performances of TRI95B than the other TRIs. Indeed, both the sensitivity and specificity of TRI95B were significantly higher than the other TRIs, indicating a better capacity to correctly classify both positive and negative cases. Moreover, while the previous TRIs identify a critical operating condition when the turbidity goal was significantly exceeded, TRI95B highlights a failure condition at a lower discrepancy. Therefore, TRI95B is also able to identify short-duration and low magnitude failures, thus coping with the purpose of the new regulation for drinking water.
1-gen-2025
Settore CEAR-02/A - Ingegneria sanitaria-ambientale
De Marines, F., Corsino, S.F., Cosenza, A., Capodici, M., Torregrossa, M., Viviani, G. (2025). A modified robustness index for assessing operational performance of drinking water treatment plants: a comparative study within a new regulatory framework. WATER RESEARCH, 268(Part B) [10.1016/j.watres.2024.122668].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10447/662075
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