Abstract:
Water companies are continually adopting catchment management as a way of
improving the quality of raw water prior to treatment. The catchments from which raw
water is abstracted are often heterogeneous which regularly presents multiple
pollutant issues and variability in the spatial distribution of pollutant-contributing
areas. For catchment management to be effective, it is crucial that water companies
select and target appropriate interventions at multi-pollutant high risk areas. Within
this thesis a conceptual framework is developed to disaggregate and compare multiple
pollutant risks in drinking water catchments to aid water companies in this decision
making process.
A review of pollutant processes highlights links between pollutants often mitigated
using catchment management and therefore confirms the feasibility for a multi-
pollutant framework. Criteria were developed with water industry catchment
management professionals to determine framework requirements. No current
framework or model fully meets these criteria. ...[cont.]
