Selection of water treatment processes using Bayesian decision network analyses

Decisions on selection between alternative water treatment sequences require numerous considerations, including treatment effectiveness and costs of the individual technologies, water quality guidelines, and the characteristics of the influent source water. Bayesian decision networks (BDNs) are demonstrated to provide a normative framework to assist in decision making for problem domains where tradeoffs are needed between uncertainty in the domain and the preferences of decision makers. A methodology is developed to apply BDNs and the methodology, and is illustrated with experimental results.