Water Supplies, Sewerage and Stormwater Networks: New Challenges and Advances in Modelling and Management

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2024 | Viewed by 4070

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Geoinformatics, Surveying and Hydraulic Modelling, Division of Strategic Planning, Hydraulic Works and Development, Thessaloniki Water Supply and Sewerage Company S.A. (EYATH S.A), Thessaloniki, Greece
2. Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: climate change; extreme value analysis; extreme storms; flood risk management; hydraulic modelling of water networks; DMAs; smart water networks; uncertainty analysis; time series analysis and forecasting; probabilistic and stochastic processes; probabilistic design and upgrading of coastal structures; reliability-based design
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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: water and sewerage networks; stormwater and flood management; sustainable wastewater treatment and management; environmental statistics and optimization techniques; simulation of flow and transport of pollutants in aquifers, oil spill forecasting models

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The modeling and management of water distribution, sewerage, and urban drainage networks have been the focus of much scientific interest recently due to challenges arising from climate change, urbanization, the deterioration of water networks, and global threats to public health, among others. Changes in water consumption patterns, increasing leakages, water waste, pipe failures, or other incidents causing “non-standard” or even emergency operating conditions are some of the main challenges faced in water distribution networks. Considering stormwater networks, the increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme rainfall events, as well as changes in precipitation dynamics due to climate change, the urban drainage processes and disposal of stormwater, the increasing threat of urban flooding, stormwater sewer overflows, as well as quality issues involved are among the main problems that need addressing. Uncontrolled sewer overflows, sedimentation and sewer blockages, the deterioration of pipe materials, and odor issues are among the significant challenges faced in sewer system management.

This Special Issue, named “Water Supplies, Sewerage and Stormwater Networks: New Challenges and Advances in Modelling and Management”, aims to publish articles that advance our knowledge and understanding of the modeling and management of different types of urban water networks. Considering water distribution networks, this issue focuses on quantity and quality issues related to the drinking water system, including hydraulic modeling, performance assessment techniques, real-time monitoring and control, energy optimization, and water safety. Sewer and stormwater networks can also be studied from both the quantity and quality perspective, including hydraulic modeling under uncertainty, real-time monitoring, optimization methods, new management technologies, circular economy, climate change effects, urban flood risk and control measures, and infrastructure.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We are looking forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Panagiota Galiatsatou
Dr. Antigoni Zafeirakou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • water network modeling
  • hydraulic software
  • real-time control
  • smart water networks
  • wastewater management
  • stormwater management
  • sewer overflows
  • circular economy
  • climate change effects
  • urban flood risk analysis and assessment
  • urban flood control

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2371 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Underground Structures on Urban Flood Models
by Martina Hauser, Stefan Reinstaller, Martin Oberascher, Dirk Muschalla and Manfred Kleidorfer
Water 2024, 16(1), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16010170 - 01 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1139
Abstract
Owing to climate change, heavy rainfall events have increased in recent years, often resulting in urban flooding. Urban flood models usually consider buildings to be closed obstacles, which is not the case in reality. To address this research gap, an existing 1D/2D model [...] Read more.
Owing to climate change, heavy rainfall events have increased in recent years, often resulting in urban flooding. Urban flood models usually consider buildings to be closed obstacles, which is not the case in reality. To address this research gap, an existing 1D/2D model was extended with underground structures. The underground structures were located using site visits, Google Earth, and information provided by the city administration. Control strategies were used to represent partially open doors or tilted windows. The model was simulated with three measured rainfall events in three different scenarios. Scenarios with underground structures resulted in small storage volumes in the structures and a slightly less flooded area on the surface. The assumptions made were analysed using sensitivity analysis. Varying the number and location of underground structures resulted in small variations in the stored volume and surface flood volume. The sensitivity analysis also showed that the thresholds for height and velocity had a large impact, whereas the opening percentage did not influence the number of buildings affected. The conclusion of the study is that the inclusion of underground structures has little effect on the predicted flooded areas but can be useful in quantifying the water depth in potentially vulnerable buildings. Full article
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16 pages, 2531 KiB  
Article
Optimal Selection of Sampling Points for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Sewer System Using NSGA-II Algorithm
by Argyro Gkatzioura and Antigoni Zafeirakou
Water 2023, 15(23), 4076; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15234076 - 24 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 764
Abstract
Sampling and analysing urban wastewater are found to be a reliable indicator of the regional spread of infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several research groups around the globe sampled wastewater from treatment plants or other points throughout a sewer system and tried [...] Read more.
Sampling and analysing urban wastewater are found to be a reliable indicator of the regional spread of infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several research groups around the globe sampled wastewater from treatment plants or other points throughout a sewer system and tried to identify the presence of the virus. Since infected persons are found to excrete the virus in their feces and urine, urban wastewater analysis proved to be a valuable tool for the early detection of spikes in the disease. In the present study, an effort was made to investigate several fate and transport scenarios of SARS-CoV-2 in a sewer system. USEPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was utilized for the analysis. The modelling results were then used as an input to an optimization procedure using an NSGA-II algorithm. The optimization procedure aimed to determine the appropriate number and combination of sampling points for a better assessment of the disease’s dispersion in the community. Four to six sampling points seem to offer a high likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in minimum time, representing the maximum population. Full article
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21 pages, 23300 KiB  
Article
Cloud Modelling of Property-Level Flood Exposure in Megacities
by Christos Iliadis, Vassilis Glenis and Chris Kilsby
Water 2023, 15(19), 3395; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15193395 - 27 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1172
Abstract
Surface water flood risk is projected to increase worldwide due to the growth of cities as well as the frequency of extreme rainfall events. Flood risk modelling at high resolution in megacities is now feasible due to the advent of high spatial resolution [...] Read more.
Surface water flood risk is projected to increase worldwide due to the growth of cities as well as the frequency of extreme rainfall events. Flood risk modelling at high resolution in megacities is now feasible due to the advent of high spatial resolution terrain data, fast and accurate hydrodynamic models, and the power of cloud computing platforms. Analysing the flood exposure of urban features in these cities during multiple storm events is essential to understanding flood risk for insurance and planning and ultimately for designing resilient solutions. This study focuses on London, UK, a sprawling megacity that has experienced damaging floods in the last few years. The analysis highlights the key role of accurate digital terrain models (DTMs) in hydrodynamic models. Flood exposure at individual building level is evaluated using the outputs from the CityCAT model driven by a range of design storms of different magnitudes, including validation with observations of a real storm event that hit London on the 12 July 2021. Overall, a novel demonstration is presented of how cloud-based flood modelling can be used to inform exposure insurance and flood resilience in cities of any size worldwide, and a specification is presented of what datasets are needed to achieve this aim. Full article
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