Centro de Território, Ambiente e Construção
Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho
Campus de Azurém
4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Phone: + 351 253 510 200 (517 206)
Fax: + 351 253 510 217
Email: geral@ctac.uminho.pt
@inbook {1560, title = {Developing a catchment water safety plan}, booktitle = {Drinking Water Quality Management from Catchment to Consumer}, year = {2011}, month = {2011-10-04 00:00:00}, pages = {51{\textendash}89}, publisher = {IWA Publishing}, organization = {IWA Publishing}, edition = {2011}, chapter = {4}, abstract = {The quality of raw water is a key element when selecting a source for any drinking water supply system.
}, keywords = {assessing risks in groundwater catchments, assessing risks in surface water catchments., catchment risks and their mitigation, developing a catchment water safety plan}, isbn = {9781843393863}, url = {http://sieeum.eng.uminho.pt/publicacoes/pub.aspx?pubid=8972}, author = {Vieira, J. M. P. and Breach, B. and Hirata, R.} }
Water use, land use and polluting human activity in the catchment area all have significant impacts on
surface and groundwater quality, and thus the level and complexity of treatment plant necessary to
ensure that the water leaving the works is safe and acceptable to consumers.
Understanding catchment characteristics and/or activities potentially impacting on raw water quality and
availability is thus of paramount importance to ensuring drinking water safety. Protection of raw water
sources should be seen as the first, and often the most important, barrier to prevent microbial, chemical
and radiological contamination of drinking water.
The development of a catchment WSP based on risk assessment and management procedures, is very
dependent on the quality and quantity of relevant information available. Particular effort is required to
collect information on catchment characteristics (e.g. geology, hydrology, meteorology, land use,
competing water uses), surface water bodies (e.g. flow rate, water quality and seasonality) and
groundwater (e.g. aquifer flow rate, flow direction and aquifer vulnerability to pollution).
This chapter sets some of the factors underpinning catchment management, provides advice on
developing a catchment WSP in conjunction with external stakeholders, describes methodologies for
assessing and managing both surface and groundwater catchments and briefly summarises common
catchment risks and how they might be mitigated.
The Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC) is a research unit of the School of Engineering of University of Minho (UMinho), recognised by the “FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia” (Foundation for Science and Technology), associated to the Department of Civil Engineering (DEC), with whom it shares resources and namely human resources.
Currently CTAC aggregates 25 researchers holding a PhD of which 20 are faculty professors of the Civil Engineering Department. Read more
Centro de Território, Ambiente e Construção
Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho
Campus de Azurém
4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Phone: + 351 253 510 200 (517 206)
Fax: + 351 253 510 217
Email: geral@ctac.uminho.pt