OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS EMPLOYING MULTIOBJECTIVE METHODS AND INDICATORS – PART 1: SELECTION AND EVALUATION OF OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS

Abstract

This research proposed a methodology for the selection and evaluation of operational performance indicators of sewage treatment plants (STP). From a survey in the literature, 780 indicators were listed, belonging to 19 entities in the sanitation area, 4 Brazilian and 15 international. The multi-objective method AHP with ratings was applied to assess the adequacy of the indicators according to the perspectives of the different actors in the context of sewage treatment plants. These actors were selected and consulted through questionnaires, using a modification of the Delphi technique. The actors were grouped using the BSC – Balanced Scorecard method. Adopting the criteria of recurrence, applicability and redundancy, the initial number of indicators was reduced to 51. This group of indicators composes a database of potential indicators for STP evaluation, which were ordered according to the performance in meeting the three imposed criteria, measured by the consultation with selected actors.