IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i13p6857-d582747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Continuous Performance Improvement Framework for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Arid Regions: Case of Wadi Rumah in Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Husnain Haider

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammed AlHetari

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia
    Graduate student.)

  • Abdul Razzaq Ghumman

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ibrahim Saleh Al-Salamah

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia)

  • Hussein Thabit

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia
    Graduate student.)

  • Md. Shafiquzzaman

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

In arid regions such as Saudi Arabia, wastewater treatment (WWT) facilities (meeting promulgated standards) need to adapt their continuous performance improvement (CPI) for long-term sustainability. To achieve this, the facilities need to improve their performance to comply with more strict objectives for broader reuse applications of treated effluent. The present research proposes a CPI framework based on performance benchmarking process for the stepwise improvement of WWT facilities. A grey rational analysis water quality index (GWQI) based on exceedance probability was developed. For weights’ estimation of 11 physical, chemical, and biological water quality parameters, the entropy method effectively accommodated the changes in relative importance of the parameters with including additional future reuse applications. For existing effluent reuse scenarios of restricted and unrestricted irrigation, the GWQI values were found consistent with the modified version of the Canadian WQI (CWQI). The indices’ values (ranged between 0 and 100) greater than 80 showed the efficient operation of four WWT plants in the Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia. Two hypothetical CPI scenarios with future reuse applications (fish, livestock drinking, and recreation) showed an overall decline in the average (of four plants) values of the GWQI (97 to 78) and CWQI (85 to 60). CWQI predicted stricter results for the facilities with parameters’ concentrations exceeding the targets with larger margins and was found applicable for the CPI of WWT facilities in arid regions. For existing scenarios, the assessment results suggest the facilities to control and monitor the chlorination practice. For future targets, tertiary treatment needs to be enhanced for desired nutrients and total dissolved solids removal. The proposed CPI framework provides a platform to initiate the performance benchmarking process for WWT facilities at local or regional levels in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Husnain Haider & Mohammed AlHetari & Abdul Razzaq Ghumman & Ibrahim Saleh Al-Salamah & Hussein Thabit & Md. Shafiquzzaman, 2021. "Continuous Performance Improvement Framework for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Arid Regions: Case of Wadi Rumah in Qassim, Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-24, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6857-:d:582747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6857/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6857/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sana Khalid & Muhammad Shahid & Natasha & Irshad Bibi & Tania Sarwar & Ali Haidar Shah & Nabeel Khan Niazi, 2018. "A Review of Environmental Contamination and Health Risk Assessment of Wastewater Use for Crop Irrigation with a Focus on Low and High-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-36, May.
    2. Weili Duan & Bin He & Daniel Nover & Guishan Yang & Wen Chen & Huifang Meng & Shan Zou & Chuanming Liu, 2016. "Water Quality Assessment and Pollution Source Identification of the Eastern Poyang Lake Basin Using Multivariate Statistical Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Husnain Haider & Pushpinder Singh & Waris Ali & Solomon Tesfamariam & Rehan Sadiq, 2015. "Sustainability Evaluation of Surface Water Quality Management Options in Developing Countries: Multicriteria Analysis Using Fuzzy UTASTAR Method," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2987-3013, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chang-Seong Kim & Maimoona Raza & Jin-Yong Lee & Heejung Kim & Chanhyeok Jeon & Bora Kim & Jeong-Woo Kim & Rak-Hyeon Kim, 2020. "Factors Controlling the Spatial Distribution and Temporal Trend of Nationwide Groundwater Quality in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Gabrijel Ondrasek & Peta L. Clode & Matt R. Kilburn & Paul Guagliardo & Davor Romić & Zed Rengel, 2019. "Zinc and Cadmium Mapping in the Apical Shoot and Hypocotyl Tissues of Radish by High-Resolution Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (NanoSIMS) after Short-Term Exposure to Metal Contamination," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Xi Yang & Xingwei Chen, 2021. "Using a combined evaluation method to assess water resources sustainable utilization in Fujian Province, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 8047-8061, May.
    4. Angela Gorgoglione & Andrea Gioia & Vito Iacobellis, 2019. "A Framework for Assessing Modeling Performance and Effects of Rainfall-Catchment-Drainage Characteristics on Nutrient Urban Runoff in Poorly Gauged Watersheds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-16, September.
    5. A. Aliewi & H. Al-Enezi & I. Al-Maheimid & J. Al-Kandari & A. Al-Haddad & H. Al-Qallaf & T. Rashid & D. Sadeqi, 2020. "Sustainability of brackish groundwater utilization from the Eocene Aquifer for oil exploration operations in central Kuwait," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 4639-4653, June.
    6. Iván P. Vizcaíno & Enrique V. Carrera & Sergio Muñoz-Romero & Luis H. Cumbal & José Luis Rojo-Álvarez, 2018. "Spatio-Temporal River Contamination Measurements with Electrochemical Probes and Mobile Sensor Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Nguyen Hong Duc & Pankaj Kumar & Pham Phuong Lan & Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan & Khaled Mohamed Khedher & Ali Kharrazi & Osamu Saito & Ram Avtar, 2023. "Hydrochemical indices as a proxy for assessing land-use impacts on water resources: a sustainable management perspective and case study of Can Tho City, Vietnam," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 117(3), pages 2573-2615, July.
    8. Xiaonan Ji & Jianghai Chen & Yali Guo, 2022. "A Multi-Dimensional Investigation on Water Quality of Urban Rivers with Emphasis on Implications for the Optimization of Monitoring Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, March.
    9. Angel Belles & Claire Alary & Agnès Rivière & Sophie Guillon & Edouard Patault & Nicolas Flipo & Christine Franke, 2019. "Transfer Pathways and Fluxes of Water-Soluble Pesticides in Various Compartments of the Agricultural Catchment of the Canche River (Northern France)," Post-Print hal-02404154, HAL.
    10. Amira Oueslati & Samia Dabbou & Nosra Methneni & Giuseppe Montevecchi & Vincenzo Nava & Rossana Rando & Giovanni Bartolomeo & Andrea Antonelli & Giuseppa Di Bella & Hedi Ben Mansour, 2023. "Pomological and Olive Oil Quality Characteristics Evaluation under Short Time Irrigation of Olive Trees cv. Chemlali with Untreated Industrial Poultry Wastewater," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Yinghui Li & Shuaijin Huang & Xuexin Qu, 2017. "Water Pollution Prediction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and Countermeasures for Sustainable Development of the Water Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, October.
    12. Zahra Allahdad & Saeed Malmasi & Morvarid Montazeralzohour & Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi & Mohammad M. Khabbazan, 2022. "Presenting the Spatio-Temporal Model for Predicting and Determining Permissible Land Use Changes Based on Drinking Water Quality Standards: A Case Study of Northern Iran," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, November.
    13. Tamerlan Srymbetov & Albina Jetybayeva & Dinara Dikhanbayeva & Luis Rojas‐Solórzano, 2023. "Mapping non‐conventional atmospheric drinking‐water harvesting opportunities in Central Eurasia: The case of Kazakhstan," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 87-113, February.
    14. Sören Thiele-Bruhn & Wei Zhang, 2023. "Influence of Manure as a Complex Mixture on Soil Sorption of Pharmaceuticals—Studies with Selected Chemical Components of Manure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Manhong Shen & Yongliang Yang, 2017. "The Water Pollution Policy Regime Shift and Boundary Pollution: Evidence from the Change of Water Pollution Levels in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-22, August.
    16. Weili Duan & Bin He & Yaning Chen & Shan Zou & Yi Wang & Daniel Nover & Wen Chen & Guishan Yang, 2018. "Identification of long-term trends and seasonality in high-frequency water quality data from the Yangtze River basin, China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, February.
    17. Guoshuai Qin & Jianwei Liu & Shiguo Xu & Ya Sun, 2021. "Pollution Source Apportionment and Water Quality Risk Evaluation of a Drinking Water Reservoir during Flood Seasons," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Qing Gu & Yao Zhang & Ligang Ma & Jiadan Li & Ke Wang & Kefeng Zheng & Xiaobin Zhang & Li Sheng, 2016. "Assessment of Reservoir Water Quality Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques: A Case Study of Qiandao Lake, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-17, March.
    19. Angelica M. Moncada & Assefa M. Melesse & Jagath Vithanage & René M. Price, 2021. "Long-Term Assessment of Surface Water Quality in a Highly Managed Estuary Basin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-24, September.
    20. V. Gholami & M. R. Khaleghi & S. Pirasteh & Martijn J. Booij, 2022. "Comparison of Self-Organizing Map, Artificial Neural Network, and Co-Active Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System Methods in Simulating Groundwater Quality: Geospatial Artificial Intelligence," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(2), pages 451-469, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6857-:d:582747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.