Intelligent decision support system to optimize, manage and plan water quality monitoring programs based on a participative approach

Tableau d'honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2017-2018Cette thèse s’intéresse au développement d’un système intelligent d’aide à la décision (SIAD) destiné à la conception, à la gestion et à l’optimisation des programmes de suivi de la qualité de l’eau (PSQE). Toute son originalité repose sur le fait qu’elle aborde la question dans une perspective holistique qui se traduit par le développement d’une approche participative dans le but de déterminer les besoins en connaissances sur la qualité et la quantité de l’eau sur lesquels se base le SIAD pour assister les gestionnaires de PSQE à toutes les étapes de la planification, de la gestion et de l’optimisation d’un PSQE. ...This thesis focuses on the development of an intelligent decision-support system (IDSS) to plan, manage and optimize water quality monitoring programs (WQMPs). The main originality of this thesis is to have approached thequestion of planning, managing and optimizing WQMPs in a holistic manner. The holistic approach transcends into the developing of a participative approach to identify knowledge needs on water quality and quantity to feed an IDSS which assists WQMP managers in every aspect of planning, managing and optimizing WQMPs. ..

Optimization of River and Lake Monitoring Programs Using a Participative Approach and an Intelligent Decision-Support System

We developed a holistic intelligent decision-support system (IDSS) to provide decision-support for all steps in planning, managing and optimizing water quality monitoring programs (WQMPs). The IDSS is connected to a previously developed database, EnkiTM. The IDSS integrates tacit and explicit knowledge on WQMPs to standardize decision making and to make decisions transparent and transferable. The optimization features of the IDSS were tested on a lake and a river WQMP from two case studies in Canada. We illustrate how the IDSS provides decision support to understanding the underlying rationale of the existing WQMPs, validating and storing data, selecting optimization procedures proposed in the literature, applying the optimization procedures and finalizing the optimization procedure. We demonstrated that the IDSS/EnkiTM is necessary to take and document decisions during all phases of a WQMP to obtain a clear idea of when and why changes are made and determine actionable tasks in the optimization process

Trends in Ozonation Disinfection By-Products—Occurrence, Analysis and Toxicity of Carboxylic Acids

Ozonation is becoming a common disinfection method for drinking water treatment. This has prompted the investigation of ozonation disinfection by-products (ODBPs) in drinking water. Ozonation generates a diverse range of carbonyl disinfection by-products, including carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones and aldo-ketoacids. Among these ODBPs, carboxylic acid by-products (CABPs) are observed in higher concentrations compared to other carbonyl by-products. However, relatively little research has been conducted on CABPs, including their precursors, formation and occurrence, methods of detection and toxicity. This review outlines the occurrence and variability of CABPs in a number of water sources treated and disinfected with ozonation. It considers the effect of ozonation parameters, including ozone dose, temperature and time of ozonation on the formation of CABPs. The review also discusses the various analytical approaches for CABP quantification, as well as their possible toxicity in drinking water

The SPLASH Action Group – Towards standardized sampling strategies in permafrost science

The Action Group called ‘Standardized methods across Permafrost Landscapes: from Arctic Soils to Hydrosystems’ (SPLASH) is a community-driven effort aiming to provide a suite of standardized field strategies for sampling mineral and organic components in soils, sediments, and water across permafrost landscapes. This unified approach will allow data from different landscape interfaces, field locations and seasons to be shared and compared, thus improving our understanding of the processes occurring during lateral transport in circumpolar Arctic watersheds