Monitoring of Water Quality: The Contribution of Advanced Technologies

Water can be considered as one of the basic elements supporting life and the natural environment, a primary component for industry, a consumer item for humans and animals and a vector for domestic and industrial pollution. Various European Directives already provide a framework for the control of aquatic substances, the quality of bathing, surface and drinking water and effluent control. Such regulatory measures are closely related to analytical measurements. In order to comply with these regulations on a permanent basis, treatment plants and distribution companies, as well as water users and polluters, need to implement automated measuring techniques, such as sensors and other analytical tools in continuous or sequential mode to obtain suitable alarm systems and facilitate the management of water resources and decision making processes. This approach is in continuous evolution within the European Union. In view of the consequences of wrong measurements, it is vital that reliable quality control systems be achieved and maintained. At present, only a small range of analytical parameters can be measured automatically, it is therefore necessary to develop and validate new methods to extend the list of parameters. The development of new methodologies requires that the most recent know-how in fields such as optics, electrochemistry, biochemistry, chemometrics and others be shared by experts. In order to identify possible actions to be undertaken in the field of standards, measurements and testing for monitoring water quality, the Standards Measurements and Testing (SMT) Programme of the European Union, organised a European workshop that was held in Nancy 29-31 May 1997. This workshop bought together researchers and industrial users with the aim to make an overview of the present state-of-the-art, to consider possible improvements in existing techniques and the need and possibilities of developing new advanced technologies.

Table of Contents:
Optical techniques for water monitoring (P. Scully). Microbiological sensors for the monitoring of water quality (D. Osbild, P. Vasseur). Data mining of water quality data by chemometrical methods (B.G.M. Vandeginste). End user's view: state-of-the-art, identification and prioritisation of needs (G. Frego). Characterization of wastewater sludges: end user's view (A. Kouzeli-Katsiri). On-line measurement in waste water treatment plants: sensor development and assessment of comparability of on-line sensors (S. Jacobsen, A.L. Jensen). Methods and Developments. Fibre-optic chemical sensors: from molecular engineering to environmental analytical chemistry in the field (G. Orellana et al .). Optochemical sensors in water monitoring (W. Trettnak, F. Reininger). Microsystems for in situ measurement of vocs in groundwaters and soils (J. Gutierrez et al .). Headspace analysis using conducting polymer sensor arrays (P.A. Payne et al .). Critical pH in cooling waters (L. Martens). Advanced technologies for new parameters and measurement concepts (M. Jauzein). Process flow rates reconciliation and data analysis (D. Maquin, J. Ragot). Discussion Papers: User's View. Sensor needs for water monitoring (M. Scott). Drinking water quality control, identification of needs for future research (EPAL's perspective (J. Benoliel). Sensors for waste water: many needs but financial and technical limitations (H. Wacheux). Needs and uses of continuous monitoring equipment for waste water treatment. Standardization y/n? (J.-L. Cecile). Improvement of water quality surveillance with the development of a new approach: integrated control of physico-chemical and biological sensors responses (J.-P. Schmitt, M. Thomas). Impact on the quality of the industrial siderurgical waters by replacing the classical blast furnaces' BF/LDAC basic oxygen furnaces' BOF file (wet gas cleaning) through the electric arc furnaces' EAF file (dry gas cleaning) (G. Diderich).