A Normal Cloud Model-Based Method for Water Quality Assessment of Springs and Its Application in Jinan

Springs are a source of drinking water and a famous tourist attraction in Jinan, China. In this paper, a multi-index evaluation method was proposed based on a normal cloud model. This model is new graphic model, which could synthetically picture the randomness and fuzziness of concepts. Ten parameters were selected, and water quality was classified into five levels. Three numerical characteristics were calculated, and the weights were assigned by an integrated weighting algorithm. The uncertainty of each spring was calculated by a cloud generator and the integrated certainty grades of water quality were determined. To ensure the accuracy of the normal cloud model, the proposed method was used to assess the water quality of springs in Jinan, China. The results obtained by the proposed method were compared with that of the other four methods. The results obtained by different methods are highly consistent. The proposed cloud model-based method can reflect the water quality level and provides a practical guide for water quality evaluation, as demonstrated in Jinan springs.