Synthetic socioeconomic based domestic wastewater hydrographs for small arid communities

A model was developed to predict synthetic socioeconomic based domestic wastewater hydrographs for the small arid communities. The model predicts the flow hydrograph for random weekdays and weekends based on the specific socioeconomic characteristics of the community. The main socioeconomic characteristics are the composition of the community, the different user behaviours in using water appliances, and the unit discharges of such appliances. Use patterns of water appliances are assumed to vary for the various members of the community and the type of day. Each community is composed of several social categories such as the employee, working woman, stay home woman, stay home child, students etc. The use patterns account for the stochastic nature of use in terms of number of uses, duration of the use and times of use in the day. Randomly generated hydrographs are generated for weekdays and weekends along with synthetic hydrographs of non-exceedance. The model was verified for a small residential compound in Sharm El Shiekh Egypt using 11 days of flow measurements performed in summer. The synthetic hydrographs based on assumed water use patterns of the various members of the community compared reasonably with the measured hydrographs. Synthetic hydrographs can be derived for a community under consideration to reflect its socioeconomic conditions and thus can be used to generate probability based peaking factors to be used in the design of sewerage systems pumping facilities, and treatment plants.