Merrett, H.C.; Chen, W.T.; Horng, J.J. A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs. Sustainability2019, 11, 2606.
Merrett, H.C.; Chen, W.T.; Horng, J.J. A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2606.
Merrett, H.C.; Chen, W.T.; Horng, J.J. A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs. Sustainability2019, 11, 2606.
Merrett, H.C.; Chen, W.T.; Horng, J.J. A Systems Analysis Approach to Identifying Critical Success Factors in Drinking Water Source Protection Programs. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2606.
Abstract
The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify control measures to ensure safe operations. To validate the results a questionnaire was developed and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the questionnaire responses, the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP. The four factors identified are ‘Policy and Government Agency Support of Source Protection’, ‘Catchment Risk Monitoring and Information’, ‘Support of Operational Field Activities’ and ‘Response to Water Quality Threats’. The results of this study provide insight into the approach of grouping of source protection measures to identify a series of targeted CSF for operational source protection programs. Using CSF can aide catchment management agencies in ensuring that the risk level in the catchment is managed effectively and that threats to public health from drinking water are managed appropriately.
Keywords
Drinking Water Source Protection; Drinking Water Safety; System Theoretic Process Analysis; Principle Components Analysis; Hazard Analysis.
Subject
Engineering, Civil Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
