Skip to main content
Log in

A Quantitative and Qualitative Framework for Reliability Assessment of Waste Water Treatment Plants Under Coastal Flooding

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Environmental Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

These days with population growth and consequence of water shortage, treated wastewater is used as an alternative source in agricultural and industrial purposes. Moreover, emerging and growing impacts of climate change, which have exacerbated the climate hazards, have placed a challenge to the management of hydrosystems including waste water treatment plants which provide treated wastewater Therefore, ensuring the proper performance of these facilities, in terms of acceptable effluent concentration, is imperative. This objective could be achieved by assessing the systems reliability, from standpoint quality of effluent, namely successful performance of facility within acceptable quality standards. This study presents a quantitative and qualitative framework for obtaining the reliability of three different waste water treatment plants at the times of coastal flooding. Coastal flooding can cause a failure in WWTP in two different ways; first by large inflow discharge resulting in solids washout and consequence performance reduction called quality failure and second, the destruction of unit operations imposed by large storm surges which inundates plants’ structural components. For quantitative method, load resistance approach is used which incorporates the probability nature of both exerted load on the system and the resistance of the infrastructure. While in previous studies these two terms are considered independent, in this study, some dependencies are considered between load and resistance. The dependencies can be modeled by utilizing copula theory. The effect of each unit operation in plants performance is investigated by estimating the level of units’ performance during time of storms. Regarding qualitative approach, a fault tree analysis is utilized. This approach uses a backward analysis beginning with a system failure as a top event and traces backward, searching for possible causes of the failure which gives a good insight into design and operation of any infrastructure in a way that suitable measures could be implemented. This could decrease the effect of important factors in the system’s failure. The case study is three waste water treatment plants in Brooklyn borough in New York City. Results showed significant value of using reliability methods in assessing infrastructure performance at the time of floods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

(adapted from NYCDEP (2013))

Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Wet Weather Plant Operation.

References

  • Alderson MP, dos Santos AB, Mota Filho CR (2015) Reliability analysis of low-cost, full-scale domestic wastewater treatment plants for reuse in aquaculture and agriculture. Ecol Eng 82:6–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.04.081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berthouex PM, Hunter WG (1981) Simple statistics for interpreting environmental data. J Water Pollut Control Fed 53(2):167–175. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25041049

  • Billinton R, Allan RN (1992) Reliability evaluation of engineering systems. Plenum Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bloomberg M (2013) A stronger, more resilient New York. City of New York, Chapter 1: sandy and its impacts and chapter 6: water and wastewater, PlaNYC Report. http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/resiliency/resiliency.shtml. Accessed 1 June 2018

  • Bogardi I, Duckstein L, Szidarovszky F (1987) Reliability estimation of underground water control systems under natural and sample uncertainty. In: Duckstein L, Plate EJ (eds) Engineering reliability and risk in water resources. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 115–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles KJ, Ashbolt NJ, Roser DJ, McGuinness R, Deere DA (2005) Effluent quality from 200 on-site sewage systems: design values for guidelines. Water Sci Technol 51(10):163–169

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng ST (1982) Overtopping risk evaluation of an existing dam. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

  • Dornbush JN (1974) Quantification of pollutants in agricultural runoff. Environ Protect Technol Ser.U.S environmental protection agency, Kansas City, Missouri 64108 (prepared for office of research and development U. S. environmental protection agency Washington, D. C, 20460)

  • Downer CW, Ogden FL (2012) GSSHA user’s manual. US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS

  • Eddy M, Burton FL, Stensel HD, Tchobanoglous G (2003) Wastewater engineering: treatment and reuse. McGraw Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • James OO, Cao JS, Kabo-Bah AT, Wang G (2015) Assessing the impact of solids retention time (SRT) on the secondary clarifier capacity using the state point analysis. KSCE J Civ Eng 19(5):1265–1270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0106-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung D, Kang D, Kim JH, Lansey K (2014) Robustness-based design of water distribution systems. J Water Resour Planning Manage 140(11): 04014033. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karamouz M, Olyaei M, Zarei L (2017a) A framework for analyzing water quality reliability of WWTP. In: World environmental and water resources congress, pp 630–641. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480601.053

  • Karamouz M, Ahmadvand F, Zahmatkesh Z (2017b) Distributed hydrologic modeling of coastal flood inundation and damage: nonstationary approach. J Irrig Drain Eng 143(8):04017019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karamouz M, Rasoulnia E, Olyaei MA, Zahmatkesh Z (2018) Prioritizing Investments in Improving Flood Resilience and Reliability of Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure. J Infrastruct Syst 24(4):04018021. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenward A, Yawitz D, Raja U (2013) Sewage overflows from Hurricane Sandy. Clim Cent. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/11-billion-gallonsof-sewage-overflow-from-hurricane-sandy-15924. Accessed 1 June 2018

  • McElroy FW (1967) A necessary and sufficient condition that ordinary least-squares estimators be best linear unbiased. J Am Stat Assoc 62(320):1302–1304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melanen MJ, Laukkanen RH (1981) Urban runoff quality in Finland and its dependence on some hydrological parameters. Water Sci Technol 13:2

    Google Scholar 

  • Niku S, Schroeder SD, Samaniego FJ (1979) Performance of activated sludge process and reliability-based design. Water Pollut Control Assoc 51(12):2841–2857. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25040511

  • Niku S, Schroeder SD, Tchobanoglous G, Samaniego FJ (1981) Performance of activated sludge process: reliability, stability and variability. Environ Protect Agency 1:1–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordeidet B, Nordeide T, Åstebøl SO, Hvitved-Jacobsen T (2004) Prioritising and planning of urban stormwater treatment in the Alna watercourse in Oslo. Sci Total Environ 334:231–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NYCDEP (2013) NYC WASTEWATER resiliency 589 plan, climate risk assessment and adaptation study. Wastewater Treatment Plants. Department of Environmental Protection, New York City, USA. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/about_dep/wastewater_resiliency_plan.shtml

  • Oliveira SC, Von Sperling M (2008) Reliability analysis of wastewater treatment plants. Water Res 42(4):1182–1194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2007.09.001

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Panico A, Lanzanoa G, Salzanoc E (2013) Seismic vulnerability of wastewater treatment plants. Chem Eng. https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1332003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qasim SR (1998) Wastewater treatment plants: planning, design, and operation. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragas AMJ, Scheren PAGM, Konterman HI, Leuven RSEW, Vugteveen P, Lubberding HJ, Niebeek G, Stortelder PBM (2005) Effluent standards for developing countries: combining the technology- and water quality-based approach. Water Sci Technol 52(9):133–144

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sharif HO, Sparks L, Hassan AA, Zeitler J, Xie H (2010) Application of a distributed hydrologic model to the November 17, 2004, flood of Bull Creek watershed, Austin, Texas. J Hydrol Eng. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonovic SP, Peck A (2013) Dynamic resilience to climate change caused natural disasters in coastal megacities quantification framework. Br J Environ Clim Change. https://doi.org/10.9734/BJECC/2013/2504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sklar M (1959) Fonctions de répartition à n dimensions et leurs marges. University of Vincennes, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweetapple C, Fu G, Butler D (2016) Reliable, robust, and resilient system design framework with application to wastewater-treatment plant control. J Environ Eng. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taheriyoun M, Bahrami M, Moradinejad S (2014) Reliability Analysis of a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant Using Fault Tree Analysis. Iran-Water Resour Res (IR-WRR), vol 10(2)

  • Tung YK, Yen BC, Melching CS (2006) Hydrosystems engineering reliability assessment and risk analysis. McGraw-Hill Education, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Virjling JK (1987) Probabistic design of water retaining structures. In: Duckstein L, Plate EJ (eds) Engineering reliability and risk in water resources. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 115–134

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Vrijling JK (1993) Development in probabilistic design of flood defenses in The Netherlands. In: Yen BC, Tung YK (eds) Reliability and uncertainty analyses in hydraulic design. ASCE, New York, pp 133–178

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2006) Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. Wastewater use in agriculture, vol 2. WHO, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Karamouz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Karamouz, M., Olyaei, M.A. A Quantitative and Qualitative Framework for Reliability Assessment of Waste Water Treatment Plants Under Coastal Flooding. Int J Environ Res 13, 21–33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-018-0141-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-018-0141-8

Keywords

Navigation