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Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management
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Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2025) | Viewed by 7961

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jiuling Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: smart city; pollution control and engineering; urban water system; real-time control; optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Keshab Sharma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Envirosuite Pty Ltd., Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Interests: sewer systems; process modelling; sewer odor and corrosion; wastewater treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sewer systems serve as critical urban infrastructures, responsible for safely conveying sewage from households and other sources to treatment facilities, thereby protecting public health. However, they face a myriad of global challenges including insufficient capacity leading to frequent overflows and pollution, blockages, corrosion, and the generation of foul odors due to hydrogen sulfide production.

Current management strategies adopted by water utilities tend to be reactive due to the limited understanding of sewers and predictive capabilities of available tools. While various technologies exist to address these challenges, further optimization and comprehension are necessary. Continuous monitoring and modeling of sewer systems are indispensable for assessing conditions and performance, enabling proactive management. Despite the emergence of new technologies, their effectiveness and longevity in harsh sewer environments remain uncertain. Consequently, numerous unresolved research questions persist regarding the methods, tools, and technologies for effective sewer management. Addressing these challenges is crucial to ensure the resilience and sustainability of urban sewer systems, enhancing their capacity to meet the evolving needs of expanding urban populations.

This Special Issue of Water welcomes papers aiming to address these research gaps and contribute to the development of knowledge and technology for cost-effective sewer management. This includes papers focusing on the following topics:

  • Emerging technologies in sewer monitoring;
  • Hydraulic modeling of sewer systems;
  • Sewer process modeling;
  • Real-time control and process optimization;
  • Application of modeling tools;
  • Sewer overflows;
  • Sewer operation;
  • Sewer-asset management.

Dr. Jiuling Li
Dr. Keshab Sharma
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sewer
  • hydraulics
  • modeling
  • process optimization
  • real-time control
  • sewer management
  • monitoring

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 3076 KB  
Article
Options and Scenarios for the Prishtina Wastewater Treatment Plant-Design Efficiency
by Sokol Xhafa, Tamás Koncsos and Miklós Patziger
Water 2025, 17(15), 2220; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17152220 - 25 Jul 2025
Viewed by 466
Abstract
This research assesses the design efficiency of the future centralized wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Prishtina, which also takes into consideration rapidly expanding suburban areas, such as Fushë Kosova, Obiliq, and Graçanica. Using a combination of both ATV-DVWK-A 131E deterministic calculations and dynamic [...] Read more.
This research assesses the design efficiency of the future centralized wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Prishtina, which also takes into consideration rapidly expanding suburban areas, such as Fushë Kosova, Obiliq, and Graçanica. Using a combination of both ATV-DVWK-A 131E deterministic calculations and dynamic simulation with IWASP, this study focuses on the planned configurations for the future Prishtina wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to evaluate design efficiency alongside operational feasibility. The primary goal was to determine if meeting projected loads for the year 2040 would be possible with compliance requirements for a single-stage CAS system. Simulation data suggest that reliable nitrogen removal would not be possible with a sole CAS stage (aerobic), particularly considering seasonal and peak load dynamics. Alternatively, an optimized three-reactor CAS model, including one anoxic pre-denitrification zone coupled with two alternating aerobic zones, achieved an average total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency of about 85%, maintaining effluent TN below 10 mg/L. Additional advantages saw COD being removed at rates between 90 and 92%, along with MLSS levels stabilizing around 3500 mg/L. The flexibly scalable design also provides adaptive operation features, including expanded tertiary nutrient removal in phase II. In scenario two’s site comparative analysis, Lismir’s centralized WWTP emerges as the most economically and technically rational option due to the enhanced reactor layout optimization. These findings confirm that enhanced configurations, validated through both static and dynamic analyses, are essential for long-term treatment efficiency and regulatory compliance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management)
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16 pages, 3808 KB  
Article
Impact of Data Quality on CNN-Based Sewer Defect Detection
by Seokwoo Jang and Dooil Kim
Water 2025, 17(13), 2028; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17132028 - 6 Jul 2025
Viewed by 575
Abstract
Sewer pipelines are essential urban infrastructure that play a key role in sanitation and disaster prevention. Regular condition assessments are necessary to detect defects early and determine optimal maintenance timing. However, traditional visual inspection using closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and [...] Read more.
Sewer pipelines are essential urban infrastructure that play a key role in sanitation and disaster prevention. Regular condition assessments are necessary to detect defects early and determine optimal maintenance timing. However, traditional visual inspection using closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and dependent on subjective human judgment. To address these limitations, this study develops a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based sewer defect classification model and analyzes how data quality—such as mislabeled or redundant images—affects model accuracy. A large-scale public dataset of approximately 470,000 sewer images was used for training. The model was designed to classify non-defect and three major defect categories. Based on the ResNet50 architecture, the model incorporated dropout and L2 regularization to prevent overfitting. Experimental results showed the highest accuracy of 92.75% at a dropout rate of 0.2 and a regularization coefficient of 0.01. Further analysis revealed that mislabeled, redundant, or obscured images within the dataset negatively impacted model performance. Additional experiments quantified the impact of data quality on accuracy, emphasizing the importance of proper dataset curation. This study provides practical insights into optimizing data-driven approaches for automated sewer defect detection and high-performance model development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management)
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23 pages, 3831 KB  
Article
Evaluation of Hydraulic Performance of Sewage Pipe Networks
by Peng Li, Yitao Zhang, Peng Zhao, Dongmei Gu and Shaohua Wang
Water 2025, 17(2), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17020159 - 9 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1425
Abstract
With the continuous increase in the urbanization rate, the amount of sewage received by the sewage pipe network has also been increasing annually. The phenomenon of high water level operation in sewage pipe networks has emerged in many cities, which seriously affects drainage [...] Read more.
With the continuous increase in the urbanization rate, the amount of sewage received by the sewage pipe network has also been increasing annually. The phenomenon of high water level operation in sewage pipe networks has emerged in many cities, which seriously affects drainage efficiency. Therefore, constructing an effective evaluation method to assess the hydraulic performance of pipe networks operating at high water levels, as well as identifying high-risk pipelines, formulating cost-effective rehabilitation schemes, and evaluating the rehabilitation effects has become necessary to solve this problem. In this study, a sewage pipe network hydraulic performance evaluation method based on flow velocity, pipe fullness, and manhole fullness was established. This method comprehensively considers the instantaneous values and cumulative operation durations of each indicator in the pipeline and, thus, can accurately evaluate the hydraulic performance of the pipe network. This method was applied to the sewage pipe network in City H, and it was found that there existed problems such as low flow velocity, unreasonable pipe diameter, overloading, and high risk of overflow. After the renovation of specific pipeline sections according to the evaluation results, the comprehensive hydraulic performance of the pipe network was significantly improved, with the grade rising from “poor” to “medium +”. This research shows that this evaluation method can accurately assess the hydraulic performance of the current and the renovated sewage pipe network, providing scientific guidance for the renovation and optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management)
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18 pages, 3427 KB  
Article
The Governance and Optimization of Urban Flooding in Dense Urban Areas Utilizing Deep Tunnel Drainage Systems: A Case Study of Guangzhou, China
by Jingyi Sun, Xuewei Wu, Guanghua Wang, Junguo He and Wentao Li
Water 2024, 16(17), 2429; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16172429 - 28 Aug 2024
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2485
Abstract
With urban expansion, traditional drainage systems in densely populated cities face significant challenges, leading to frequent flooding and pollution issues. Deep tunnel drainage systems emerge as an innovative approach, offering underground storage for excess precipitation and alleviating urban inundation. This research investigates the [...] Read more.
With urban expansion, traditional drainage systems in densely populated cities face significant challenges, leading to frequent flooding and pollution issues. Deep tunnel drainage systems emerge as an innovative approach, offering underground storage for excess precipitation and alleviating urban inundation. This research investigates the deployment of a deep tunnel system in Guangzhou’s densely populated urban core. By integrating with existing networks, this system aims to curtail over-flow contamination and boost sewage-handling capacity. Successful implementation hinges on the thorough evaluation and synchronization with broader urban development objectives. In Guangzhou, where traditional methods fall short, deep tunnels present a viable option. This study explores techniques for identifying drainage deficiencies, devising enhancements, and refining citywide strategies. Economic analysis indicates that deep tunnels are more cost-effective than conventional drainage upgrades, offering long-term benefits for land conservation and drainage efficiency. Following implementation, these systems markedly enhance sewage management, diminish overflow incidents, and improve pollution mitigation. Although initial investments are substantial, the enduring advantages in land preservation and drainage efficiency are significant. Thus, deep tunnel systems emerge as a practical flood control solution for high-density urban areas like Guangzhou, fostering sustainable metropolitan growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management)
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13 pages, 2015 KB  
Project Report
Digital-Twin-Based Management of Sewer Systems: Research Strategy for the KaSyTwin Project
by Sabine Hartmann, Raquel Valles, Annette Schmitt, Thamer Al-Zuriqat, Kosmas Dragos, Peter Gölzhäuser, Jan Thomas Jung, Georg Villinger, Diana Varela Rojas, Matthias Bergmann, Torben Pullmann, Dirk Heimer, Christoph Stahl, Axel Stollewerk, Michael Hilgers, Eva Jansen, Brigitte Schoenebeck, Oliver Buchholz, Ioannis Papadakis, Dominik Robert Merkle, Jan-Iwo Jäkel, Sven Mackenbach, Katharina Klemt-Albert, Alexander Reiterer and Kay Smarslyadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Water 2025, 17(3), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17030299 - 22 Jan 2025
Viewed by 2078
Abstract
Sewer infrastructure is vital for flood prevention, environmental protection, and public health. As part of sewer infrastructure, sewer systems are prone to degradation. Traditional maintenance methods for sewer systems are largely manual and reactive and rely on inconsistent data, leading to inefficient maintenance. [...] Read more.
Sewer infrastructure is vital for flood prevention, environmental protection, and public health. As part of sewer infrastructure, sewer systems are prone to degradation. Traditional maintenance methods for sewer systems are largely manual and reactive and rely on inconsistent data, leading to inefficient maintenance. The KaSyTwin research project addresses the urgent need for efficient and resilient sewer system management methods in Germany, aiming to develop a methodology for the semi-automated development and utilization of digital twins of sewer systems to enhance data availability and operational resilience. Using advanced multi-sensor robotic platforms equipped with scanning and imaging systems, i.e., laser scanners and cameras, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), the KaSyTwin research project focuses on generating digital twin-enabled representations of sewer systems in real time. As a project report, this work outlines the research framework and proposed methodologies in the KaSyTwin research project. Digital twins of sewer systems integrated with AI technologies are expected to facilitate proactive maintenance, resilience forecasting against extreme weather events, and real-time damage detection. Furthermore, the KaSyTwin research project aspires to advance the digital management of sewer systems, ensuring long-term functionality and public welfare via on-demand structural health monitoring and non-destructive testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Sewer Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Management)
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