Water & Environmental Engineering Research Group:
Tropical Public Health Engineering

MONTE CARLO APPLICATIONS

Monte Carlo simulations can be applied to many design problems in Water & Environmental Engineering when the values of the various design parameters are not known precisely, but can be estimated to lie within a certain specified range. A PC-based Monte Carlo design program is used to perform the following tasks:

(a) select at random a value for each design parameter from within its specified range (thus there is an element of chance in the procedure – hence its name, which is that of Europe's most famous gambling location).

(b) do the design calculations for the values of the design parameters so selected; and

(c) repeat (a) and (b) any required number of times (often 1000 or 10,000 times).

The design results so obtained are then examined statistically to produce a mean, median and/or a 95-percentile (or any other percentile) design.

The TPHE/WEE Research Group at the University of Leeds has developed PC-based Monte Carlo procedures for:

(1) Design of waste stabilization pond series to produce a required number of faecal coliform bacteria in the final effluent, and

(2)  Estimation of human health risks associated with wastewater reuse for crop irrigation

(3)  An online QMRA calculator for health risk of lettuce consumption irrigated with wastewater.