Detection of water quality failure events at treatment works using a hybrid two-stage method with CUSUM and random forest algorithms

Journal Article (2021)
Author(s)

Gerald Riss (University of Exeter)

Fayyaz Ali Memon (United Utilities Group PLC)

Michele Romano (United Utilities Group PLC)

Zoran Kapelan (TU Delft - Sanitary Engineering, University of Exeter)

Research Group
Sanitary Engineering
Copyright
© 2021 Gerald Riss, Fayyaz Ali Memon, Michele Romano, Z. Kapelan
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2021.062
More Info
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Publication Year
2021
Language
English
Copyright
© 2021 Gerald Riss, Fayyaz Ali Memon, Michele Romano, Z. Kapelan
Research Group
Sanitary Engineering
Issue number
6
Volume number
21
Pages (from-to)
3011-3026
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Abstract

Near-real-time event detection is crucial for water utilities to be able to detect failure events in their water treatment works (WTW) quickly and efficiently. This paper presents a new method for an automated, near-real-time recognition of failure events at WTWs by the application of combined statistical process control and machine-learning techniques. The resulting novel hybrid CUSUM event recognition system (HC-ERS) uses two distinct detection methodologies: one for fault detection at the level of individual water quality signals and the second for the recognition of faulty processes at the WTW level. HC-ERS was tested and validated on historical failure events at a real-life UK WTW. The new methodology proved to be effective in the detection of failure events, achieving a high true-detection rate of 82% combined with a low false-alarm rate (average 0.3 false alarms per week), reaching a peak F1 score of 84% as a measure of accuracy. The new method also demonstrated higher accuracy compared with the CANARY detection methodology. When applied to real-world data, the HC-ERS method showed the capability to detect faulty processes at WTW automatically and reliably, and hence potential for practical application in the water industry.