Over the past few decades, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) models have been developed in order to improve WWTP conception, design and operation. Those models are built on biological phenomena such as autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria growth, hydrolysis and decay that occur in WWTP biological tanks.

Several models based on various concepts are available. Thus far, no study has evaluated the models' adequacy with the modelling objectives and WWTP characteristics. Using a poor quality model could lead up to a wrong decision and impact on the effluent quality. Furthermore, few validated sets of parameters are available.

First of all, automated procedures and quality of results evaluation tools have been set up. The robustness and the results accuracy of several models that integrate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus removal have been evaluated for different scenarios. Then, set of parameters have been validated depending on the utilization of the models. All these results will allow to build a decision tree to choose the most adequate model.