Performance Modelling

How can the overall performance of distributed treatment systems be assessed without detailed continuous measurements at each site?

The entire system of urine collection, transport and decentralized treatment consists of a large number of interconnected elements (e.g. toilets, storage tanks, treatment reactors) that together provide the overall system performance (e.g. pollution control, urban hygiene, fertilizer production). Systems analysis based on mathematical modeling provides tools to identify critical system elements, evaluate the value of particular measurement schemes and to estimate the overall system performance including its probability distribution and uncertainty

	households
	urine collection & transport
	urine treatment & fertilizer production

Research questions concerning performance modelling:

• How can the toilet use rate be estimated by measurements of urine delivered to a central location?
• How can the probability that a particular urine volume is delivered to the treatment plants be estimated?
• How can the performance of a treatment plant be monitored based on cheap and infrequent measurements?
• What information does a supervising agency need in order to assess the overall system performance?

The research activity "performance modelling" will:

• develop a generic model of such collection and treatment systems
• apply it to different scenarios in Durban
• develop guidelines for the design and monitoring of such systems
• support other activities in system design and estimation of process variables