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In this article, a new approach towards the management of water supply systems that is under implementation in the Republic of Slovenia will be presented. Current approaches are based on the integration of data at a horizontal level within the organization that provides the water supply service. One of the tasks of the service providers has always been reporting to the regulating authority. With increasing importance of the water supply service, the reporting requirements for other services is ever increasing and therefore a new approach is under way which aims at reporting of an extensive set of nonaggregated data on water supply systems. The new approach proves to be very efficient especially regarding the improved analytical capacity for other sectors and activities beside the regulatory agency itself, such as: regional spatial planning, emergency services, health, etc. The work has put forward the importance of good definition and management of spatial units where the service is provided – agglomerations. Water supply systems were defined on the basis of their hydraulic homogeneity, which enables back-tracing of water from the pipe to the source. The resulting spatial database has strong analytical capacity and is already under implementation as a useful decision-support tool.

Source characteristics and failure mechanisms with potential to cause waterborne pathogen illness in the general population are described. Concerns with potential pathogen outbreaks are increasing in public awareness/attention as the occasions of incidence are increasing in occurrence and may be exacerbated by bioterrorism. Responsive efforts to ensure an effective and safe water supply system are increasing in complexity in part built upon increased understanding of pathogen fate and transport characteristics.

a measure for the presence of organic compounds (Conio et. al., 2002). Through analysis of the entire spectrum of UV and visible light, however, a lot of the entire UV/Vis region was only possible using expensive equipment, suited only for operation in a well controlled laboratory environment. As the first online instruments for use in the field have now reached the market, it is time to determine the use and capabilities of these instruments. additional information can be obtained. Until recently, recording and analysis of The UV-absorption of water at 254 nanometer has often been used as

The information on the anticipated development of the supply and distribution of drinking water is important especially considering the development planning of regions, the decision-making about and design of the water supply systems, their capacity and size, and also their protection against major events, which include e.g. vandalism and terrorism. The question of lowering the losses in water distribution networks and their solution is very close to the prevention against these events.

Hydraulic and water quality models of water distribution systems are routinely applied for operational and design purposes. In the past few years, these models have been increasingly used in issues related to water security. This paper provides a general overview and history of water quality modeling in distribution systems. It also discusses how these models are being used to address water security issues in the area of planning and vulnerability assessment, design of monitoring networks, historical reconstruction of waterborne outbreaks, and real-time assessment, emergency response and remediation during a contamination event. Research and development needs associated with water quality modeling in support of water security are also discussed.

Vulnerability of Water Distribution Systems to Leakage is defined using standard terminology. The use of Water Balance Method illustrates a basic approach to leakage. Moreover, the suitability of various performance indicators is discussed and illustrated using both technical as well as financial data. Methodology to evaluate leakage (e.g. DMA, SCADA) provides the operators with a suitable means how to decrease the leakage. Field measurements of hydraulic parameters and mathematical modelling of Water Distribution Systems may substantially help to quantify leakage and to evaluate the best practice for integrated leakage reduction.

Water treatment and distribution systems are highly vulnerable to degradation of quality and reliability of supply as a result of many factors, natural, accidental, and intentional. Among the potential intentional factors that the utility manager and operators have to plan for is the introduction of toxic contaminants into the water supply or disruption of water service through sabotage of key components of the infrastructure. Rapid recognition of the nature and location of such occurrences is vital to protect the integrity of the water supply and safeguard the consumers from potentially harmful contaminants, determine appropriate changes in supply and treatment strategy, and ensure compliance with environmental regulations. The utility manager and the operations staff must be given the proper tools as well as be trained to identify an event, locate the extent and potential danger to the public, and be prepared to react in a proper and timely fashion. Rapidly developing sophisticated software and real time instrumentation and monitoring systems provide the tools to design and develop early warning monitoring systems and to increase the preparedness of the water utility to react to such unexpected events. Proper integration of state of the industry hydraulic modeling systems, geographical information systems (GIS) for the water distribution network, and the installation of a SCADA system for both water treatment plant and active element control as well as the monitoring of critical points within the distribution system will be an invaluable resource for the operator to react to an event (real time response) as well as to plan for possible future events (contingency planning).

Alarm parameters are in many ways different from measurements of well-defined chemical substances. Being confronted with an increasing number of potentially harmful compounds as well as financial and logistical constraints, new variables (such as alarm parameters) that allow for an integrated assessment or for a first screening can be a solution. To monitor for surrogate or aggregate variables can be a useful strategy to overcome some of the constraints. It must be conceived that this can go along with losses in terms of comparability of results and even in tailor-made variables. Spectral data and their evolution over time are rich in information and compensate for losses due to aggregation and generalisation. Therefore it can be expected that alarm parameters developed from spectral data are transferable, accurate and selective to an extent that is beyond the state-of-the-art. Examples for application at waterworks show the actual practical use of and generated alarm parameters from spectral data.

A set of waterborne transport tools has been developed that simulate the fate and transport of chemical, biological and radiological contaminants in source water and within the distribution system. These tools consist of: (1), RiverSpill – real-time, time-of-travel and dispersion model, (2) PipelineNet – water distribution hydraulic and water quality model and (3) the Incident Command Tool for Drinking Water Protection (ICWater). RiverSpill is a geographic information system (GIS)-based tool that provides the ability to model, using real-time stream flow data, the time-of-travel and concentration of toxic substances at public water supply intakes. PipelineNet is a GIS-based system, which integrates hydraulic and water quality models with existing spatial databases. PipelineNet integrates the EPANET hydraulic model and ArcView to give emergency managers real time information for estimating the risks to public water supplies. The integrated system calculates, locates, and maps the population at risk from the introduction of contaminants to the water distribution network. ICWater integrates multiple sources of information to give decision makers concise summaries of current conditions and forecasts of future consequences of terrorist acts on public water supply safety. The system is GIS-based and the output is compatible with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Consequences Assessment Tool Set (CATS) and the Environmental Protection Agency's Emergency Response Analyzer. The core element of ICWater is the RiverSpill time-of-travel model. RiverSpill is being modified to operate at the 1:100,000-scale stream network available through the EPA and USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD).

Corrosion of iron pipes negatively influences the quality of distributed water in many aspects. Colour, turbidity, conductivity and iron concentration increase, whereas dissolved oxygen and active chlorine decrease. Corrosion can also cause a failure of pipes and secondary contamination of drinking water. This paper deals with changes of water quality in a distribution network and with the use of the Epanet 2 program for modelling of increasing iron concentrations during the distribution of drinking water. This research is being conducted in cooperation with the operator of the South Bohemian Waterworks providing transport of drinking water from the Plav WTP (Water Treatment Plant) to the Hodušín water tank. The data required for this analysis were measured and evaluated, and the model was set up and calibrated using the average values of the first set of measured data. Different variants of kinetics and coefficients were evaluated and the best of them were verified. The aim of this research is to reduce corrosion and ensure better water quality not only with respect to iron concentrations, but also for other parameters, for example, total active and free chlorine, water stability, and so on. Corrosion rates were also measured and different types of corrosion were detected.