Using Principles of Structured Decision-Making to Evaluate Wastewater Treatment System Alternatives

Danilo Cesar Strapasson¹, Daniel Costa dos Santos¹, and Andressa Berno Benetti²

1. Civil Engineering,Federal University of Parana, Brazil

2. Civil Engineering, Guaraqueçaba Municipality, Brazil

Abstract: As a result of population growth, urban centers and metropolitan regions around major cities have seen a sharp increase in the sewage production. One of the many challenges this poses is how to respond to rapidly and haphazardly urbanization, in terms of selecting different Wastewater Treatment Systems (WWTS) alternatives. Therefore, this paper applies the concepts of Structured Decision-Making, which is one of the decision making analysis (DMA) process, in order to select specific WWTS Configurations into a given scenario to treat domestic sewage. It brings up a fresh and innovative perspective in the field of sanitation by proposing and evaluating centralized, decentralized and sustainable WWTS solutions using DMA. In addition, the goals are to provide a mechanism of DMA and hence to obtain the best solutions especially for underserved urban areas, which lack basic needs and planning. The method adopted also encompasses a case study of a Pilot Project which has conducted on campus at Federal University of Paraná. The data of the indicators previous selected were carefully observed, documented and subsequently compared with the data obtained in the literature. Furthermore, this research was able not only to analyze and compare different solutions, but still to present the design of the sustainable WWTS alternatives.

Key words: wastewater treatment systems, structured decision-making, sustainability