Development and Use of a Decision Support System for the Response to Drinking Water Contamination Events
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Published:01 Jul 2013
B. Tangena, J. Schijven, J. Foret, and M. Bakker, in Water Contamination Emergencies: Managing the Threats, ed. U. Borchers, J. Gray, K. C. Thompson, K. C. Thompson, U. Borchers, and J. Gray, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013, pp. 205-221.
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Drinking water systems are vulnerable to accidental or intentional contamination events. This holds specifically for the distribution network where thousands of kilometers pipelines are located in the public area and preventive protection measures are hardly possible. In case of a contamination event in the drinking water distribution network, a quick assessment of the situation as well as proper response actions are required. For that purpose, knowledge of the behaviour of contaminants in the network and the possible public health effects is needed. Such knowledge is the basis for appropriate measures for protection of the consumers and mitigation of the effects; measures are to be conducted by operators of the water utility. In the Dutch project Disconto (Distribution Control Training and Operation) the behaviour and effects of contaminants as well as the measures are treated in a coherent way. This project is performed by a consortium consisting of four water companies, two research institutes and two consultancies, with a grant from the Dutch government.