Deterministic models have been widely
used to predict water quality in distribution
systems, but their calibration requires extensive
and accurate data sets for numerous
parameters. In this study, alternative data-driven
modeling approaches based on artificial
neural networks (ANNs) were used to
predict temporal variations of two important
characteristics of water quality, chlorine
residual and biomass concentrations.
The authors considered three types of ANN
algorithms. Of these, the Levenberg-Marquardt
algorithm provided the best results in
predicting residual chlorine and biomass with
error-free and "noisy" data. The ANN models
developed here can generate water quality
scenarios of piped systems in real time to help
utilities determine weak points of low chlorine
residual and high biomass concentration and
select optimum remedial strategies.Includes 23 references, tables, figures.