The formulation of rational wastewater control strategies is becoming
increasingly important in many countries where, exploding urbanization
, industrialization and/or tourism, often combined with improved stand
ards of living and better awareness of the environmental problems, are
resulting in enlarged pollution problems, but also in the availabilit
y of expanding financial resources for environmental protection. Howev
er, more often than one tends to believe, lack of planning, or plannin
g with limited understanding of the principles involved, has resulted
in solutions that are both expensive and incapable of addressing the k
ey problems. As rigorous planning is extremely resource intensive, and
for this reason impractical for most study areas, the development of
a much simplified analysis procedure, capable of generating rational,
near-optimum, strategies and detailed action programs, is required, if
proper environmental management is to be widely practiced. In an effo
rt to achieve the above objectives, a systems analysis approach is sel
ected as the most suitable at rationalizing the allocation of availabl
e resources and at producing detailed action programs that promote imp
lementation. In the context of this approach, new, easy to use models
have been developed, while others, have been selected, adapted and str
eamlined in their use. The entire problem analysis and strategy synthe
sis procedures have thus been simplified and defined to a degree appro
priate for widespread use, and the resultant procedure is actively pro
moted by WHO and UNEP.