Continuous performance improvement of aquatic centres: A Taguchi-based optimization approach towards sustainability

Aquatic centres are important for enhancing the quality of life and human health benefits in cold regions. These useful facilities face serious performance-related challenges, such as imperfect indoor environmental flows, higher water and energy demands, and higher costs, consequently, struggling to achieve sustainability. Improving the performance of aquatic centres at minimum cost is not possible without optimizing the operational factors. This study developed a Taguchi-based optimization approach for improving performance with minimal economic stress. This study used an orthogonal array L-27 consisting of twelve control factors (pH, temperature, total organic content, free chlorine, humidity level, lifeguard-to-bather ratio, number of working hours, daily average user, dosing rate, water circulation rate, air change hour, and ventilation rate) with three levels (low, medium, and high). Signal to noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance were generated to identify optimal conditions of the control factors. The proposed approach was validated with a confirmation test by predicting the S/N ratio at optimum conditions. The results showed that all the control factors were optimum at their second level, i.e., medium level except for total organic content and lifeguards-to-bather ratio. Additionally, at optimal factors levels, the performance-to-cost (P/C) ratio of an aquatic centre significantly improved from 26 to 37.89 dB. The number of working hours, air change hours, and free chlorine were found to be the most significant factors for the P/C ratio. The application of the approach demonstrated its practicability for performance optimization of aquatic centres in British Columbia (Canada) and elsewhere to achieve long-term sustainability.