Neural Networks complemented with Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Systems for Predicting Nitrogenous Effluent Variables in Wastewater Treatment Plants

This work focuses on the prediction of the two main nitrogenous variables that describe the water quality at the effluent of a Wastewater Treatment Plant. We have developed two kind of Neural Networks architectures based on considering only one output or, in the other hand, the usual five effluent variables that define the water quality: suspended solids, biochemical organic matter, chemical organic matter, total nitrogen and total Kjedhal nitrogen. Two learning techniques based on a classical adaptative gradient and a Kalman filter have been implemented. In order to try to improve generalization and performance we have selected variables by means genetic algorithms and fuzzy systems. The training, testing and validation sets show that the final networks are able to learn enough well the simulated available data specially for the total nitrogen. Key–Words: Environmental modeling, Wastewater treatment plant, Total nitrogen, Total kjedhal nitrogen, Neural networks, Genetic algorithms, Fuzzy systems