Abstract. Significant drinking water contamination events pose a serious threat to public and environmental health. Water utilities often must make timely, critical decisions without evaluating all facets of the incident. The data needed to enact informed decisions are inevitably dispersant and disparate, originating from policy, science, and heuristic contributors. Water Expert is a functioning hybrid decision support system (DSS) and expert system framework that emphasizes the meshing of parallel data structures in order to expedite and optimize the decision pathway. Delivered as a thin-client application through the user's web browser, Water Expert's extensive knowledgebase is a product of inter-university collaboration that methodically pieced together system decontamination procedures. Decontamination procedures are investigated through consultation with subject matter experts, literature review, and prototyping with stakeholders. This paper discusses the development of Water Expert, analyzing the development process underlying the DSS and the system's existing architecture specifications. Water Expert constitutes the first system to employ a combination of deterministic and heuristic models which provide decontamination solutions for water distribution systems. Results indicate that the decision making process following a contamination event is a multi-disciplinary effort. This contortion of multiple inputs and objectives limit the ability of the decision maker to find optimum solutions without technological intervention.
This paper will demonstrate the effectiveness of the university-housed watershed capacity development approach of the Kentucky Institute for Watershed Management Support (KIWMS). KIWMS engages students in developing and implementing model holistic processes for rehabilitation/regionalization and management for communities with aging on-site wastewater management systems. This approach exposes students to the broader aspects of watershed management beyond the mere technical components. KIWMS provides regional planning support to communities throughout the Commonwealth in order to maintain the natural and economic resources of their watersheds. The Center for Water Resource Studies (CWRS), which houses KIWMS, uses undergraduate students from Western Kentucky University (WKU) to conduct field work, develop surveys and analyze data under the direction of a Professional Engineer. The CWRS expertise in water and wastewater, combined with its mission as a utility and municipal technical assistance provider, empowers communities to realize the fundamental goal of holistic watershed management. KIWMS leverages synergy between local, state and other resource agencies at a watershed level by providing infrastructure and support for accountability and the technical basis to ensure measurable results.
This paper provides a case study in the application of the concepts of the Water Resource Management Technologies technology transfer concept presented at the 2009 conference.
Ms. Fattic's role as Associate Director of the Center includes budget development and project coordination of state and federal grants totaling over one million dollars annually. Ms. Fattic's responsibilities include day-to day administration, budget and personnel management, quality assurance and quality control, and maintenance of certifications. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Kentucky University, and has worked in both the public sector as a regulator and private sector as an environmental consultant prior to being employed by the Center.
Western Kentucky University. Her role includes project coordination and budget management of state and federal grants totaling over one million dollars annually. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Kentucky University, and is currently conducting research for her Master's thesis on ways to connect hands-on experiential components with distance learning opportunities for students in STEM disciplines. Ms. Fattic worked in both the public sector as a regulator and private sector as an environmental consultant prior to being employed by the Center in 2004.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.