Integrative Approach to the Safety Assessment of Water Treatment Systems

Purpose. Development of an integrative approach to assessing the safety of water treatment systems, based on a comprehensive analysis of their reliability, stability and potential risks, taking into account relevant domestic and international experience. Methodology. To achieve the goal of the study, methods of system analysis, theoretical modeling methods, qualitative methods of risk analysis, comparative analysis and methods of generalization and systematization of the obtained data were used. Results. Based on the conducted study, the existence of a close relationship between the reliability (N), stability (S) and safety (B) of water treatment systems was established, where increasing reliability and stability correlates with increasing safety levels. It was found that the key factors of the stability of water treatment systems, namely: depreciation capacity, adaptive capacity, speed and efficiency of recovery, as well as the level of redundancy, play an important role in minimizing the consequences of failures and external influences on safety. It is established that the conceptual dependence of safety on reliability and stability, which can be expressed as B∞ N ×S, emphasizes the synergistic effect of these parameters in ensuring a sustainable and safe water supply. The vulnerability of critical water infrastructure to intentional negative interventions requires the integration of relevant risks into the overall safety assessment model. An integrative approach to assessing the safety of water treatment systems is proposed, which comprehensively takes into account reliability, stability and risks, including threats of natural, man-made and military nature, as well as a conceptual structural model of the stability of water treatment systems, which includes depreciation, adaptation, recovery and redundancy as key functional characteristics. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the development and justification of an integrative approach to assessing the safety of water treatment systems, which comprehensively takes into account the relationship between their reliability, stability and risks, as well as the specifics of threats of natural, man-made and military nature. Practical significance. The proposed integrative approach demonstrates high potential for improving and adapting modern methods for assessing the safety of water treatment technologies used at critical water infrastructure facilities.