Title: Spatiotemporal assessment of water quality in the distribution network of City of Sharjah, UAE

Authors: Md. Maruf Mortula; Kazi Parvez Fattah; Tarig A. Ali; Alaeldin Idris; Mayyada Bardan

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 26666, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Civil Engineering, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 26666, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Civil Engineering, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 26666, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Research and Studies Department, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, P.O. Box 150, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Research and Studies Department, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, P.O. Box 150, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: Maintaining a healthy water distribution network (WDN) is key to providing good quality services to the consumers in a sustainable manner. WDN in the City of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), has more than 3,000 km of pipeline and receives water from different sources. Understanding the variation of water quality over time is critical to appropriate management. The objective of this paper was to assess the variability of the water quality in Sharjah WDN. Monitoring data for residual chlorine, iron, and fluoride were collected from 46 different locations throughout the distribution system. Graphical and GIS-based analyses were conducted to understand the temporal (for three source waters and three locations in the WDN) and spatial variability (all locations) of water quality throughout the distribution network. Temporal variations indicated seasonal water quality variations throughout the three-year period (2012-2014). The spatial variability indicated that the old part of the city was susceptible to water quality degradation.

Keywords: water distribution network; WDN; water quality; infrastructure integrity; geographic information system; GIS; spatial variability; infrastructure management; United Arab Emirates; UAE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDS.2019.101140

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 2019 Vol.11 No.2, pp.116 - 128

Received: 03 Apr 2017
Accepted: 23 Aug 2017
Published online: 25 Jul 2019 *

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