Practical evaluation for water utilities in China by using analytic hierarchy process

Abstract

The risk of water utilities would include the water quality failure and the water quantity failure, from the source to the tap, including the catchment, treatment, distribution and the customer plumbing system. In this paper, we proposed a practical evaluation method based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The hierarchical structure of the water utilities was established in terms of the fault event analysis from the past failure accidents. The severity of criteria was preset by the experts and the probability of criteria was determined by a modified CUWA-TSM sheet with the consideration of the actual situations of the supply system. The evaluation model was successfully performed by a case study. Although, the method in this paper may not be as good as the framework of WSPs, it has a great advantage compared to WSPs and TSM. The risk management can be applied through specific software packages with a user-friendly interface, which means it is easier to implement. In addition, it can point out the critical control points (CCPs) for the decision-makers. So we believe this method will improve and play a more and more active role in the development of the risk management in China water works.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

analytic hierarchy process (AHP) / risk management / water quality failure / water quantity failure

References

[1] Ministry of Health, People’s Republic of China, Standard for drinking water quality (GB5749-2006), 2006 (in Chinese)

[2] China Statistic Yearbook 2008, Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2009 (In Chinese)

[3] China Statistic Yearbook 2009, Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2010 (in Chinese)

[4] Qian Y. Current status of research on water pollution control in China. In: Proceedings of 3rd IWA-ASPIRE conference and exhibition. Taipei, 2009

[5] Zhang X J, Chen C, Lin P F, Hou A X, Niu Z B, Wang J. Emergency drinking water treatment during source water pollution accidents in China: origin analysis, framework and technologies. Environmental Science & Technology, 2011, 45(1): 161–167

[6] Zhang X J, Chen C, Ding J Q, Hou A, Li Y, Niu Z B, Su X Y, Xu Y J, Laws E A. The 2007 water crisis in Wuxi, China: analysis of the origin. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2010, 182(1–3): 130–135

[7] WHO (World Health Organization). Guidelines for drinking water quality, Vol 1. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2004

[8] Cox L A Jr. What’s wrong with risk matrices? Risk Analysis, 2008, 28(2): 497–512

[9] Hamilton P D, Gale P, Pollard S J T. A commentary on recent water safety initiatives in the context of water utility risk management. Environment International, 2006, 32(8): 958–966

[10] Mullenger J, Rayn G, Hearn J. A water authority’s experience with HACCP. Water Science and Technology: Water Supply, 2002, 2(5–6): 149–155

[11] Lindhe A, Rosén L, Norberg T, Bergstedt O. Fault tree analysis for integrated and probabilistic risk analysis of drinking water systems. Water Research, 2009, 43(6): 1641–1653

[12] CDW/CCME. From source to tap: guidance on the multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water. Federal-provincial-territorial committee on drinking water and Canadian council of ministers of the environment water quality task group, Health Canada, 2004

[13] China urban water association. Water supply technique safety management system checklist, 2009

[14] Saaty T L. The analytic hierarchy process. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980

[15] Delgado-Galván X, Rafael Pérez-García R, Izquierdo J, Mora-Rodríguez J. An analytic hierarchy process for assessing externalities in water leakage management. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 2010, 52(7–8): 1194–1202

[16] Lee D J, Hwang J. Decision support for selecting exportable nuclear technology using the analytic hierarchy process: a Korean case. Energy Policy, 2010, 38(1): 161–167

[17] Xu G, Yang Y, Lu S, Li L, Song X. Comprehensive evaluation of coal-fired power plants based on grey relational analysis and analytic hierarchy process. Energy Policy, 2011, 39(5): 2343–2351

[18] Bottero M, Comino E, Riggio V. Application of the analytic hierarchy process and the analytic network process for the assessment of different wastewater treatment systems. Environmental Modelling & Software, 2011, 26(10): 1211–1224

[19] Chang N B, Chang Y H, Chen H W. Fair fund distribution for a municipal incinerator using GIS-based fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Journal of Environmental Management, 2009, 90(1): 441–454

[20] Dey P K, Ramcharan E K. Analytic hierarchy process helps select site for limestone quarry expansion in Barbados. Journal of Environmental Management, 2008, 88(4): 1384–1395

[21] Gray N F. Water Technology: an introduction for environmental scientists and engineers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the “Water Pollution Control and Treatment Special Project of China” (Grant Nos. 2009ZX07419-004, 2012ZX07408-001 and 2011ZX07410-002) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51378014 and 51138008).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg