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Methodology for determining regional thresholds for the calculation of standards for the permissible discharge of liquid industrial waste into surface waters

Yu.A. Tunakova, S.V. Novikova, E.V. Baibakova, V.S. Valiev

Section: Methodology and research methods. Models and forecasts

Water quality standards are a key tool for regulating anthropogenic pressure on water bodies. A scientificallybased approach to the development of regional water quality standards is the use of modern mathematical methods for the analysis of experimental data and information technologies. We have developed a methodology for determining regional threshold standards for permissible discharge of liquid industrial waste for selected types of surface waters. The presented methodology uses a symbiosis of cluster analysis and expert evaluation methods, which allows to increase the validity of the results obtained. The typification of surface waters was carried out for water bodies of the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan on the basis of long-term systematic observations. Clustering was carried out according to the sets of all determined hydrochemical indicators using Kohonen neural self-organizing networks implemented in the author’s neural network filtering model. Experts in the relevant subject area acted as experts to assess the homogeneity of data groups in each of the selected clusters. Each heterogeneous group established by experts was divided into clusters using the Kohonen neural network until the required uniformity was achieved. Based on expert analysis, hydrochemical indicators, which had a uniform variability of values and did not allow water typing, were excluded from further evaluation. According to the values of other hydrochemical indicators, six types of waters are distinguished. Threshold values of hydrochemical indicators for clusters corresponding to the upper threshold of the variational series of values are determined. The obtained regional threshold concentrations for each type of water are proposed to be used to calculate the standards of permissible discharges during the disposal of liquid waste into water use facilities located in the Volga-Kama basin.

Keywords: liquid production waste, discharge, water bodies, neural network technologies, regional threshold concentrations, standards permissible discharges

Link

Article published in number 4 for 2021
DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2021-4-028-033