Real-time monitoring and forecasting system for early warning of recreational waters contamination

Abstract

A new WebGIS platform for urban drainage management was developed based on the integration of catchment-to-receiving waters modelling and on real-time on-line monitoring networks. The platform is devoted to the surveillance and real-time decision support for urban drainage management, especially for issuing early warnings for faecal contamination in receiving waters. The water information forecast framework (WIFF) platform was deployed in the Tagus estuary forced by the discharges from the Alcântara catchment, the largest catchment of Lisbon. The system combines the 3D hydrodynamics and water quality model ECO-SELFE, that simulates circulation and faecal contamination in the Tagus estuary, forced by the Alcântara urban drainage model, built in SWMM. On-line monitoring stations were installed in the Alcântara CSO and in the estuary. Several synoptic field surveys were conducted, aiming at improving the water quality models validation and integration and validating and complementing the on-line monitoring data. These campaigns also supported the search for relations between real-time measurable variables and faecal contamination indicators. Since microbial faecal contamination cannot be measured by existing sensors, ammonia and parameters measured by UVVis spectrophotometric probes are used as baseline parameters for continuous verification of the water quality forecasts.