Wastewater pipeline leakage is an emerging concern in Europe, especially with regards to the potential effect of leaking effluent on groundwater contamination and the effects infiltration has on the management of sewer reticulation systems. This paper describes efforts by Australia, in association with several European partners, towards the development of decision support tools to prioritize proactive rehabilitation of wastewater pipe networks to account for leakage. In the fundamental models for the decision support system, leakage is viewed as a function of pipeline system deterioration. The models rely on soil type identification across the service area to determine the aggressiveness of the pipe environment and for division of the area into zones based on pipe properties and operational conditions. By understanding the interaction between pipe materials, operating conditions, and the pipe environment in the mechanisms leading to pipe deterioration, the models allow the prediction of leakage rates in different zones across a network. The decision support system utilizes these models to predict the condition of pipes in individual zones, and to optimize the utilization of rehabilitation resources by targeting the areas with the highest leakage rates.
Linked water process models that simulate the complexities of urban water systems for towns overlying productive aquifers can help improve and better integrate urban water resource management. The Assessing and Improving the Sustainability of Urban Water Resources and Systems (AISUWRS) project has successfully linked together water scheduling, pipe leakage and groundwater flow models and applied these models to case studies in Europe and Australia. This paper describes the application and results of the modelling tools for a case study suburb in Doncaster England. The linking of process models offers the prospect of better quantification of flows and contaminant loads, and diverse scenarios were readily simulated once the base case had been set-up. The linked models produced higher estimates of recharge than previous estimates, and this may suggest that suburban catchments are an underutilised resource. At a time when increasing urbanisation and rising water use is predicted for groundwater-dependent southern England, there is a need for such tools to make the most of increasingly urbanised aquifers.
This paper discusses the development of a computer based software tool to generate groundwater contaminant data; that can be utilised in the sustainable management of water resources; in urban areas reliant on groundwater. The tool incorporates several models, including a model for simulation of the integrated urban water system within an urban area to estimate contaminant loads, a model that estimates the extent of leakage from sewer pipelines and two unsaturated transport models which trace the attenuation of contaminants and movement of water through the soil to the aquifer. The output from the tool is data suitable for use in commercially available groundwater flow models to allow prediction of contaminant flows within the aquifer, as well as sufficient data to allow socio-economic analysis of different scenarios. The urban water system tool allows water services to be represented in a flexible manner and provides the ability to represent and investigate the implications of a wide range of conventional and emergent techniques for providing water supply, stormwater and wastewater services. This allows the users to process predefined scenarios, and provide options to the end-user to develop best practice response to the scenario based on the scenarios potential for groundwater contamination, for example, modifying customer preferences, groundwater treatment or introducing system improvements that minimise contamination.
The management of large‐diameter pressurized pipe assets poses a challenge for many water utilities. Condition assessments can be done as part of the management effort, but such an undertaking may prove an expensive endeavor that does not always provide the desired information. The research described here used an approach based on case studies to investigate condition assessment practices in Australia and New Zealand. The article provides an overview of the research and a synthesis of the case studies. Most of the condition assessments reviewed involved discrete inspections of short sections of pipe or used inference techniques such as measurement of soil corrosivity. Drawing on the results of the case studies, the authors propose a riskbased management framework, which provides insights into the development of an appropriate management strategy for these assets.
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