Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 December 2019) | Viewed by 23157

Special Issue Editors

Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities and College of Engineering and Science, Victoria University, Ballarat Road, Footscray, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia
Interests: urban water; wastewater and stormwater systems; decentralised systems; hydraulic and hydrology; integrated urban water management; sustainability assessment; water resources; water sensitive urban design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities, Victoria University, Ballarat Rd, Footscray, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia
Interests: decentralised and on-site sewerage systems; integrated urban water management; water sensitive urban design; irrigation systems; wastewater recycling; system thinking as applied to the urban water cycle, metabolism of ecologically sensitive subdivision (water, energy and nutrient balances); quantitative microbial risk assessment of alternative urban water supplies, etc.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urbanisation, population growth and climate change drive the planning of water supply systems. Urban developments are facing a shortage of fresh water resources, yet somewhat perversely, an increase in their wastewater and stormwater generation; adverse impacts on the ecology of the receiving water environment; aging infrastructure; financial constraints and increase in GHG emissions.

Smart technologies can play an important role in the better planning, design, implementation, operation and maintenance of water supply systems. These technologies may include: application of geospatial technologies including remote sensing; pressure reducing systems to mitigate potable water mains pipe bursts; maintaining demand driven pressure in systems; minimising non-revenue water by timely location of leaks; real time monitoring of systems; application of IoT for water quantity and quality monitoring; use of ITC and control systems; real time water network analysis for system control, management of rainwater storages for reducing peak runoff rates, real time feed back of water consumption and price to customers, alerting customers to hidden (sub surface) water leaks.

The application of smart technologies in also being promoted in water systems for: managing stormwater harvesting systems,  local aquifers to store stormwater (ASR), real time detection of pathogens using chip based DNA technology, critical control points to ensure “out of spec water” does not pass onto the next treatment step, real time sensors & alert systems  for cross connection in dual reticulation systems in suburbs  and on demand UV systems (i.e., LED based) to reduce energy use from “under the sink” domestic installations.

 

Assoc. Prof. Ashok Sharma
Prof. Ted Gardner
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • water supply systems
  • smart technologies
  • real time monitoring
  • contro system
  • IoT
  • remote sensing

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 959 KiB  
Article
Comprehensive Assessment Methodology for Urban Residential Rainwater Tank Implementation
by Ashok K. Sharma and Ted Gardner
Water 2020, 12(2), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020315 - 21 Jan 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3602
Abstract
Rainwater tanks are increasingly being implemented as part of the integrated urban water management paradigm where all sources of water, including potable, stormwater and recycled, are considered eligible to contribute to the urban water supply. Over the last decade or so, there has [...] Read more.
Rainwater tanks are increasingly being implemented as part of the integrated urban water management paradigm where all sources of water, including potable, stormwater and recycled, are considered eligible to contribute to the urban water supply. Over the last decade or so, there has been a rapid uptake of rainwater tank systems in urban areas, especially in Australian cities, encouraged through financial incentives, but more importantly, from change in residential building codes effectively mandating the installation of rainwater tanks. Homes with rainwater tanks in Australian cities have increased from 15% to 28% over six years to 2013. These building codes specify certain rainwater tank specifications to achieve a stated rainwater use, and hence potable water savings. These specifications include minimum rainwater tank size, minimum connected roof area, plumbing for internal supply for toilets and washing machines, and external supply for garden watering. These expected potable water savings from households are often factored into regional strategic water planning objectives. Hence if rainwater tanks do not deliver the expected saving due to sub-standard installation and/or poor maintenance, it will have an adverse impact on the regional water plan in the longer term. In this paper, a methodology to assess the effectiveness of a government rainwater tank policy in achieving predicted potable water savings is described and illustrated with a case study from South East Queensland, Australia. It is anticipated that water professionals across the globe should be able to use the same methodology to assess the effectiveness of similar rainwater policies, or indeed any other distributed water saving policy, in their local planning communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning)
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23 pages, 7239 KiB  
Article
Real-Time, Smart Rainwater Storage Systems: Potential Solution to Mitigate Urban Flooding
by Ruijie Liang, Michael Di Matteo, Holger R. Maier and Mark A. Thyer
Water 2019, 11(12), 2428; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122428 - 20 Nov 2019
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5797
Abstract
Urban water systems are being stressed due to the effects of urbanization and climate change. Although household rainwater tanks are primarily used for water supply purposes, they also have the potential to provide flood benefits. However, this potential is limited for critical storms, [...] Read more.
Urban water systems are being stressed due to the effects of urbanization and climate change. Although household rainwater tanks are primarily used for water supply purposes, they also have the potential to provide flood benefits. However, this potential is limited for critical storms, as they become ineffective once their capacity is exceeded. This limitation can be overcome by controlling tanks as systems during rainfall events, as this can offset the timing of outflow peaks from different tanks. In this paper, the effectiveness of such systems is tested for two tank sizes under a wide range of design rainfall conditions for three Australian cities with different climates. Results show that a generic relationship exists between the ratio of tank:runoff volume and percentage peak flow reduction, irrespective of location and storm characteristics. Smart tank systems are able to reduce peak system outflows by between 35% and 85% for corresponding ranges in tank:runoff volumes of 0.15–0.8. This corresponds to a relative performance improvement on the order of 35% to 50% compared with smart tanks that are not operated in real-time. These results highlight the potential for using household rainwater tanks for mitigating urban flooding, even for extreme events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning)
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16 pages, 3022 KiB  
Article
Sizing of Domestic Rainwater Harvesting Systems Using Economic Performance Indicators to Support Water Supply Systems
by Shivanita Umapathi, David Pezzaniti, Simon Beecham, David Whaley and Ashok Sharma
Water 2019, 11(4), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040783 - 15 Apr 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4199
Abstract
This paper presents a monitoring-based investigation of rainwater collection systems using economic performance indicators in a group of households with nonconventional end-uses for rainwater that are not traditionally associated with rainwater supply. The monitored data for five household rainwater tank systems were analysed [...] Read more.
This paper presents a monitoring-based investigation of rainwater collection systems using economic performance indicators in a group of households with nonconventional end-uses for rainwater that are not traditionally associated with rainwater supply. The monitored data for five household rainwater tank systems were analysed in two stages. For the first stage, the data was empirically analysed to develop a method to predict effective roof catchment areas. For the second stage, the effective roof catchment areas, together with roof area connection percentages, were analysed against different types of water demands in individual households. The individual systems were investigated for yield capacities, costs and water security using a modified Roof Runoff Harvesting Systems average annual yield model based on daily water balance procedures. The Life Cycle Costing analysis of the systems using the model was based on the Capital Recovery Method by taking into consideration the capital costs as well as ongoing costs for maintenance, replacement and operation of the systems. The analysis established the optimal sizing requirements for the studied rainwater tanks and their corresponding roof area connectivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning)
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15 pages, 4577 KiB  
Article
Using SCADA to Detect and Locate Bursts in a Long-Distance Water Pipeline
by Weiping Cheng, Hongji Fang, Gang Xu and Meijun Chen
Water 2018, 10(12), 1727; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10121727 - 26 Nov 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4822
Abstract
Pipe bursting is a serious problem for water supply systems. We propose a two-step burst detection and localization method for a long-distance water transportation pipeline. First, we use the Dempster–Shafer theory, an effective inference method for processing uncertain information, and combine two risk [...] Read more.
Pipe bursting is a serious problem for water supply systems. We propose a two-step burst detection and localization method for a long-distance water transportation pipeline. First, we use the Dempster–Shafer theory, an effective inference method for processing uncertain information, and combine two risk functions to identify a pipe burst. Then we identify the location of the burst point using a hydraulic model. The method is prototyped on a transportation pipeline in Guangzhou, China and tested with one-year historical records. The detection system correctly identified all the bursts and the alarm rate is acceptable for the system inspectors (average: two alarms/month). The burst location is identified within the acceptable limits of accuracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning)
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16 pages, 1763 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Residential Water End Use Pattern Recognition Accuracy Using Self-Organizing Maps and K-Means Clustering Techniques: Autoflow v3.1
by Ao Yang, Hong Zhang, Rodney A. Stewart and Khoi Nguyen
Water 2018, 10(9), 1221; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10091221 - 10 Sep 2018
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4160
Abstract
The aim of residential water end-use studies is to disaggregate water consumption into different water end-use categories (i.e., shower, toilet, etc.). The authors previously developed a beta application software (i.e., Autoflow v2.1) that provides an intelligent platform to autonomously categorize residential water [...] Read more.
The aim of residential water end-use studies is to disaggregate water consumption into different water end-use categories (i.e., shower, toilet, etc.). The authors previously developed a beta application software (i.e., Autoflow v2.1) that provides an intelligent platform to autonomously categorize residential water consumption data and generate management analysis reports. However, the Autoflow v2.1 software water end use event recognition accuracy achieved was between 75 to 90%, which leaves room for improvement. In the present study, a new module augmented to the existing procedure improved flow disaggregation accuracy, which resulted in Autoflow v3.1. The new module applied self-organizing maps (SOM) and K-means clustering algorithms for undertaking an initial pre-grouping of water end-use events before the existing pattern recognition procedures were applied (i.e., ANN, HMM, etc.) For validation, a dataset consisting of over 100,000 events from 252 homes in Australia were employed to verify accuracy improvements derived from augmenting the new hybrid SOM and K-means algorithm techniques into the existing Autoflow v2.1 software. The water end use event categorization accuracy ranged from 86 to 94.2% for the enhanced model (Autoflow v3.1), which was a 1.7 to 9% improvement on event categorization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Technologies and Water Supply Planning)
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