Combining Genetic Algorithms with a Water Quality Model to Determine Efficiencies of Sewage Treatment Systems in Watersheds

Abstract

AbstractThe implementation and operation of wastewater treatment plants are fundamental actions for environmental water body pollution control that generally involve large amounts of financial resources. Hence, employment of optimization techniques for decisions about the minimum required wastewater treatment plant efficiencies might be very useful. In this study, an optimization technique known as the genetic algorithm (GA) was combined with a water-quality model to determine the minimum efficiencies for sewage treatment in watersheds. Combinations of the optimization technique and models that incorporated environmental quality standards for the parameters of dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and equity measures among sewage treatment systems, either as constraints or in the objective functions, were developed. These combinations were applied to the Santa Maria da Vitoria river watershed, located in the State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, considering possible effluent disposal scenario...