Use of UV-Vis spectrometry for alarm parameters in drinking water supply

Alarm parameters are in many ways different from measurements of well-defined chemical substances. Being confronted with an increasing number of potentially harmful compounds as well as financial and logistical constraints, new variables (such as alarm parameters) that allow for an integrated assessment or for a first screening can be a solution. To monitor for surrogate or aggregate variables can be a useful strategy to overcome some of the constraints. It must be conceived that this can go along with losses in terms of comparability of results and even in tailor-made variables. Spectral data and their evolution over time are rich in information and compensate for losses due to aggregation and generalisation. Therefore it can be expected that alarm parameters developed from spectral data are transferable, accurate and selective to an extent that is beyond the state-of-the-art. Examples for application at waterworks show the actual practical use of time-resolved delta spectrometry and generated alarm parameters from spectral data.