Hydroinformatics based decision.making integrating modelling, sampling and profiling: the Ria Formosa case

A Waste Water monitoring program aiming to help decision making is presented. The program includes traditional and inboard sensor sampling, hydrodynamic and water quality modeling and a GIS based database to help the decision making of manager authorities. The focus is in the quality of waters receiving discharges from Waste Water Treatment Plants. Data was used to feed model simulations and produce hydrodynamic, effluent dispersion and ecological results. The system was then used to run different scenarios of discharge flow, concentration and location. The results enable to access the current water quality state of the lagoon and are being used as a decision making tool by the waste water managers in the evaluation phase of the treatment plant project to decide the location and the level of treatment of the discharge. INTRODUCTION Decision-making is frequently conducted based in “rules of thumb” rather than in sound scientific knowledge. This happens not because of the lack of scientific work for the region under evaluation, but because the scientific and decision making communities do not communicate. This produces lack of knowledge and, more important, lack of confidence in scientific results [4]. In this article a different scenario is presented where a Hydroinformatics based approach to decision-making is conducted. The work was sponsored by the decision authority responsible by the waste water discharges. A monitoring effort centered in the MOHID numerical model and integrating also water sampling and on-board multi-parameter profiling is used to monitor the waters of the