Environmental and Sanitary Risk Assessment of the waste water treatment plant in west of Ahwaz Using AHP and TOPSIS methods

Subject Areas : HSE Management

hamidreza  pourkhabbaz ¹ (Assistant Professor, Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran. *(Corresponding Authors))
azin  azizi ² (MSc. student of Evaluation and land use planning, Faculty of Natural Resources, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran.)
saeide  javanmardi ³ (Instructor of Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran.)
Ali Reza  Pourkhabbaz ⁴ (Associate Professor, Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.)

Received: 2017-08-03 Accepted : 2018-10-10 Published : 2022-03-21

Keywords: TOPSIS, Wastewater, Risk index, MCDM, wastewater treatment plant,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: Employed workers in wastewater treatment plants are always exposed to threats of risk factors in the workplace such as harmful physical, chemical and biological factors. Therefore, the present study assesses the safety, health and environmental risks in the wastewater treatment plant in west of Ahwaz city to investigate these risks and provide the necessary solutions. Material and Methodology: After the field visits, interviews to experts and staffs of treatment plant and internet researches (2018), a list of the most important risks was identified and given to the experts and staffs. In order to analyze and prioritize the risks, it was used from AHP and TOPSIS, which are multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDM) and as well as the entropy technique to calculate the weight of the indicators. In Continuation to prioritizing strategies of factors, in order to removing the conflict between TOPSIS and AHP results, it was used the ranks mean.Findings: According to the results of AHP and TOPSIS, the most important safety and environmental risks that were identified, are impact to rotating parts of systems, entry of toxic materials and impermissible industrial wastewater and the dispersion of biogas from sludge digestion reservoirs. Also, according to the results of the ranks mean method, among the safety and health risks, it was Assigned impact to rotating parts of systems to score 1/5 the first priority, the electric shock and the dispersion of bad gas from wastewater to score of 3 and 3/5 were the second and third priority respectively. Among the environmental risks, it was Assigned entry of toxic materials and impermissible industrial waste water, the dispersion of biogas from sludge digestion reservoirs to score of 2 first priority, fire and explosion score of 3 second priority and fluctuations of waste wate discharge score of 3/5 the third priority.Disscotion & Conclusion: Given that the performance of wastewater treatment plants is a function of various human, natural, equipment and functional factors at the exploitation stage, therefore, management of these factors will help to improve the process of exploitation. In the present study, one of the most important management actions to reduce the level of risks identified, can pointed to apply of work safety guidelines, establishing of facilities and necessary equipment to burn additional gases and prevent their dangerous accumulation in the treatment plant environment, perform pre- treatment of industrial wastewater and continuous monitoring of effluent wastes to match with environmental standards. 

References:

1. Azimi, S., Amir nejad, R., 2012. HSE education for all. 3^rd Tehran: Fadak Istatis Pub. (In Persian)


2. Amelian, Sh., Ahmadi, A.M., Koofigar. H.R., 2016. Assessment and Prioritization of Project Risk in the oil and gas Industry Using Fuzzy Topsis Method. Internation Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, 6(4): 363-372.


3. Halvani, Gh., Zare, M., 2013. Engineering of Systems Safety and Risk Management. Tehran: Sobhan Pub. (In Persian)


4. Asgharpour, M.J., 2015. Multicriteria Decisin Making. Tehran University Pub. (In Persian)


5. Jozi, S.A., Saffarian Sh., Shafiee, M., 2012. Environmental Risk Assessment of Gas Power Plant Exploitation Unit Using Integrated TOP-EFMEA Method. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 21(1): 95-105.


6. Heidari, M., Rezayan, S., Nezakati, R., 2015. Environmental risk evaluation of the exploitation of the lake in twenty second region of Tehran by using MADM multi criteria decision. Journal of Marine Science and Technology Research, 10 (1): 97-117. (In Persian)


7. Rezayan, S., Jozi, S.A., Ataei, S., 2016. Assessing Environmental Risk Caused by Zanjan’s Paverood Dam in its Construction Stage Using a combination of TOPSIS and RAM-D Methods. Journal of Engineering Geology, 10 (2): 3445-3465. (In Persian)


8. Mirabi, M., H. Mianabadi, M. Zarghami, M.B. Sharifi and Mostert. E. 2014. Risk-based Evaluation of Wastewater Treatment Projects: A Case Study in Niasar City, IranResources, Conservation and Recycling, 93: 168-177.


9. Shin, D.W., Y. Shin and Kim. G.H. 2016. Comparison of Risk Assessment for a Nuclear Power Plant Construction Project Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, Journal of Building building construction and planning research, 4: 157-171.


10. Najafpour, F., Soleimani Babersad, M., Denak, H.R., 2014. Study for Reusing Wastewater and Wastewater Treatment Plants Sludge in the City's Green Space (the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ahvaz). Quaterly Journal on Water Engineering, 2 (2): 135-142. (In Persian)


11. Jozi, S.A., Shafiei, M., Saffarian, Sh., 2016. Application of Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods in Environmental Hazards Analysis of Protected Areas (Case study: Helleh Area of Boushehr). Environmental Researches, 6 (11): 14-97. (In Persian)


12. Ataei, M., 2005. Using TOPSIS to determine the appropriate extraction method. 24^th Conference of The earth Sceinces, Geology Department. (In Persian)


13. Saaty, T.L. 2000. Fundamentals of Decision Making and Priority Theory, 2nd Ed., PA: RWS Pub., Pittsburgh.


14. Ghodsipour, S.H., 2009. Hierarchical Analysis Process. Amirkabir University of Technology Pub. (In Persian)


15. Ataei, M., 2015. Multicriteria Decisin Making. 3^rd Shahroud University Pub. (In Persian)


16. Laquaz, M., Dagot, C., Bazin, C., Bastide, T., Gaschet, M., ploy, M.C., and Perrodin, Y. 2017. Ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance of a mixture of hospital and urban sewage in a wastewater treatment plant, Journal of Environmental Science and Pollution Research: 1-11.


17. Huber, S., M. Remberger, L. Kaj, M. Schlabach, H. Jorundsdottir, J. Vester, M. Arnorsson, I. Mortensen, R. Schwartson and Dam M. 2016. A first screening and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and additives in personal care products in waste water, sludge, recipient water and sediment from Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, Science of the Total Environment, 562: 13-25.


18. Tabesh, M., Badali Bavani, A., Asgarian, M., Roozbahani, A., 2015. An Algorithm for Risk Analysis and Management of Wastewater Treatment Plants. Iran- Water Resources Research, 10 (3): 53-65.


19. Shanaki Bavar Sad, M., Ahmadi Moghaddam, M., Ryahi Khorram, M., 2014. Assessment and management of environmental, Safety and health risks of water treatment plants in Ahvaz (Case study: water treatment plants No. 1 and 2).­ National Conference of Environment, Dahaghan: Payame Noor University.