Integrated quality management for hydroponic water reuse: a dual-objective approach

ABSTRACT An integrated quality management (QM) concept was developed for a hydroponic water reuse case helping to achieve the various goals of water reuse systems. To the best of our knowledge, no research has been published to date that integrates water QM with agricultural on-farm QM. The concept development built on a literature review, an analysis of two applications submitted to legal and regulatory authorities for water reuse, concept development and stakeholder integration through a living lab approach, team meetings and individual exchange. The integrated QM concept effectively addresses objectives relevant to the reuse system by identifying critical control points along with their respective threshold and reference values, suggesting corrective actions, and establishing measures for system validation and verification. The cooperation among involved partners is examined in terms of responsibilities, requirements, and communication structures. The integrated QM concept appears well-suited to the defined goals, supporting both system development and continuous improvement, and is designed for situations involving small and medium-sized farms. However, as long as such inter-company harmonization of quality efforts is not actively promoted, its long-term benefits remain uncertain.