Drinking water quality: management at the source and in the distribution system

制定确保安全饮用水的战略需要更好地了解水源、处理过程和分配系统内水质在时间和空间上的变化。提高对水质变异性的认识需要监测相关污染物，并开发解释和预测其发生的工具。这项研究计划将产生新的知识、数据库和工具，以改善水源和分配系统内的水质管理。该计划将重点关注新出现的消毒副产物（DBPs）的发生、非管制氯化DBPs的建模以及饮用水水源质量的监测和建模。该计划由三个互补的研究项目组成。第一个项目将调查从处理厂到配电系统末端的新兴dbp的时空发生情况。正在研究的新出现的dbp将是那些具有高度毒理学相关性的dbp。第二个项目的目的是发展卤化乙酸（HAAs）变异性的建模方法，卤化乙酸是仅次于三卤甲烷的更普遍的dbp组。HAAs的模型将根据有关目前监测的水质参数、分配系统的操作、水力和结构特征以及水停留时间和管道生物膜存在的指标的资料。最后，第三个项目的目的是为源头水质的时间变化发展早期预警工具，以防止饮用水污染事件。将获得和开发的知识、方法和工具将有助于改善供水管理人员、负责环境管理/管制的当局和卫生官员的决策过程。由于在拉瓦尔大学找到了设备齐全的实验室和饮用水现场材料，该方案的完成将成为可能。本研究项目将培养各类硕士生、博士生、博士后、研究助理和本科生。

The development of strategies to ensure a safe drinking water requires a better understanding of the variations, in time and space, of water quality at the source, during the treatment process and within the distribution system. Improving the understanding of water quality variability requires the monitoring of relevant contaminants and the development of tools explaining and predicting their occurrence. This research program will generate new knowledge, databases and tools for improving water quality management at the source and within the distribution system. The program will focus on the occurrence of emerging disinfection by-products (DBPs), on the modelling of non-regulated chlorinated DBPs and on monitoring and modelling of drinking water source quality. The program is comprised of three complementary research projects. The first project will investigate the spatio-temporal occurrence of emerging DBPs from the treatment plant to the extremities of the distribution system. The emerging DBPs under study will be those with a high toxicological relevance. The second project aims at developing methodologies for modelling the variability of haloacetic acids (HAAs), the more prevalent group of DBPs after trihalomethanes. Models for HAAs will be based on information about currently monitored water quality parameters, operational, hydraulic and structural characteristics of the distribution system and indicators for the residence time of water and the presence of pipe biofilm. Finally, the third project is intended to develop early warning tools for the temporal variability of water quality at source, in order to prevent drinking water contamination events. The knowledge, methodologies and tools to be acquired and developed will serve to improve decision-making processes by water utility managers, authorities responsible for environmental management/regulation and health officers. The completion of this program will be possible thanks to the fully equipped laboratory and field material for drinking water found at Université Laval. The research program will contribute to the training of various Masters and doctoral students as well as post-doctoral fellows, research assistants and undergraduates.