Over the last decade, following a growing awareness for receiving water body quality, the control of nutrients has become a crucial aspect concerning both researchers and practitioners.  During the last years research has been conducted on different fronts:

(1) optimization of nutrients removal processes in full scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs);

(2) development of new technologies to comply with more stringent limits for total nitrogen and total phosphorus;

(3) setting up modelling tools useful to predict, control and assess nitrogen and biological phosphorus removal processes.

The process modelling for different system configurations is undoubtedly a common key point of the different fronts of the scientific research. The goal of Alida's research project was the setting up of a mathematical model able to simulate the Nitrification Denitrification Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (NDEBPR) processes, including the Soluble Microbial Products (SMP) formation-degradation and physical processes, for Membrane Biological Reactor (MBR) systems. Moreover, an ad hoc technique for selecting identifiable parameter subsets and for uncertainty analysis of MBR models has been developed. The technique is intended to be employed for optimizing operation conditions of MBR systems.