Workshop on using Water Quality Forecasting in Decision Making

March 9, 2018 | spaceo2017
Calendar
When:
April 19, 2018 all-day
2018-04-19T00:00:00+02:00
2018-04-20T00:00:00+02:00
Where:
Brussels
Belgium
Contact:
Email
Event website

Potential end-users from water utilities and water resources experts from across Europe were invited to test Space-O products, during our workshop on using Water Quality Forecasting in Decision Making last April.

Video is accessible on https://vimeo.com/268348646

Participants were able to engage with prototype tools and provide valuable feedback on applications that integrate satellite technology for water quality monitoring and advanced hydrologic and water quality modeling with ICT tools. They also provided information about the relevance of real-time, short to medium term forecasting of water flows and key water quality parameters (e.g. turbidity, algae) in reservoirs for decision making in water supply services.

The inputs of this group will be crucial to ensuring the development of functional and user-friendly tools, including a risk-based decision support system (DSS) to enable cost-effective and environmental sustainable operation of Water Treatment Plants (WTP).

Workshop overview & objectives

  1. To learn about SPACE-O and how the outputs can be used;
  2. To understand how problems like algal blooming and high turbidity affect operations of water treatment plants and reservoir managers in the provision of drinking water;
  3. To identify the economic impact of these problems in utility operations, and investments being undertaken to moderate or mitigate these impacts;
  4. To compile information on the potential uses of SPACE-O products (e.g. satellite imagery and forecasting).

Feedback & Results

Participants split up into small groups to test and discuss each component of the SPACE-O tools.

Most participants expressed to have experienced issues with algae bloom and turbidity, ranging from very severe cases –as to cause water supply shut-downs– to moderate impacts –like temporal increases in treatment costs.

During several discussions, the project team gained detailed insights into the demands of water utility managers and received detailed feedback on the user-friendliness and applicability of the software tools. The potential of water quality forecasting tools to contribute to water safety plans was highlighted by many participants.

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