Modeling of wastewater quality in an urban area during festival and rainy days

Water pollution during festival periods is a major problem in all festival cities across the world. Reliable prediction of water pollution is essential in festival cities for sewer and wastewater management in order to ensure public health and a clean environment. This article aims to model the biological oxygen demand (BOD₅), and total suspended solids (TSS) parameters in wastewater in the sewer networks of Karbala city center during festival and rainy days using structural equation modeling and multiple linear regression analysis methods. For this purpose, 34 years (1980–2014) of rainfall, temperature and sewer flow data during festival periods in the study area were collected, processed, and employed. The results show that the TSS concentration increases by 26–46 mg/l while BOD₅ concentration rises by 9–19 mg/l for an increase of rainfall by 1 mm during festival periods. It was also found that BOD₅ concentration rises by 4–17 mg/l for each increase of 10,000 population.