Challenges and solutions in IKT and Co-UDlabs’ UD Workshop
On November 3 and 4, 2021, Co-UDlabs and one of its partners, IKT (Institute for Underground Infrastructure), held an Online Workshop on Urban Drainage Practice and Research Needs, a two-day event to identify valuable good practices and research for the optimisation of UD assets’ performance and improve their resilience to climate change and sustainability.
More specifically, the Workshop was also designed to introduce Co-UDlabs’ three Joint Research Activities that will be undertaken in the course of the four-year project, and to illustrate their themes with various examples of issues and good practices from urban drainage network owners and researchers. It was, in other words, a very valuable and outstanding opportunity for researchers, utility management, regulators, businesses, and other relevant stakeholders in UD systems to meet, discuss, and share potential pathbreaking ideas for the sustainable future of this field.
All presentations from the Workshop are available for download in the links below. The video recordings of the event will soon be available through our dissemination channels.
Next steps: our international #TA call and the Co-UDlabs Hackathon
The Workshop was also a great venue to introduce Co-UDlabs’ open Trans-National Access (TA) call, for user groups and research time to access — free of charge — one of the 17 research facilities that form the project’s extensive Research Infrastructure.
Co-UDlabs is already organising another supporting event, meant to guide potential users and interested researchers and stakeholders towards the TA call and its opportunities. On November 23 and 25, 2021, Co-UDlabs will hold a Hackathon event, in which disruptive ideas, outstanding issues, and common solutions will be discussed and — perhaps — developed into valuable TA proposals. All information about the Hackathon (including a set of Guidelines) is available on our website.
Workshop’s Agenda and Presentations for download
The presentations are available for download:
Introduction
- The Co-UDlabs Project – Objectives, Ambition, Work programme – Dr. Jose Anta Álvarez (Co-UDlabs – Universidade da Coruña, Spain)
- Co-UDlabs and collaboration – Bringing Science, Industry and Network Operators together – Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Brüggemann, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bert Bosseler (Co-UDlabs – IKT, Germany)
- Case Study – Heavy rainfall events in Europe in July 2021: consequences and challenges for sewer network operators – Mirko Salomon (KomNetAbwasser – IKT, Germany)
Session I – Optimising existing urban drainage asset performance – Co-UDlabs Joint research Activity 1 use of monitoring and sensing to optimise network performance in response to heavy rainfall
- Overview of the issues to be addressed by Co-UDlabs JRA 1 concerning monitoring and sensing for asset performance – Dr. Jean-Luc Bertrand-Krajewski – INSA Lyon (France)
- Smart Utilisation of Wastewater Storage capacity in Sewers – Centaur Project (UK, France, Portugal) – Dr. Alma Schellart (Co-UDlabs – University of Sheffield, UK)
- Pollution released in Combined Sewer Overflows. Monitoring challenges in traditional infrastructures of Madrid (Spain) – Antonio Lastra (Canal Isabel II, Spain)
- Management of flow measurement data in sewers – Dr. Franz Tscheikner-Gratl (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
This session was followed by a panel discussion on research needs for ‘use of monitoring and sensing to optimise performance in response to heavy rainfall’.
Session II – Evaluation of Assets and Deterioration – Co-UDlabs Joint Research Activity 2
- Overview of the issues to be addressed by Co-UDlabs JRA 2 on Evaluation of assets deterioration in Urban Drainage systems – Prof. Simon Tait, (Co-UDlabs, University of Sheffield, UK)
- Application of cameras for monitoring pumping stations (Netherlands) – Prof. François Clemens (Co-UDlabs – Deltares, Netherlands)
- AI-based Approaches for Short- and Long-term Sewer Asset Management in Berlin (Germany) – Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Riechel (Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin, Germany)
- Numerical Studies about deterioration assets in Arnhem and Den Haag (Netherlands) – Dr. Irene Scheperboer (IKT, Netherlands)
The session was followed by a panel discussion on research needs for ‘use of monitoring and sensing to optimise performance in response to heavy rainfall’.
Session III – Improving resilience and sustainability of urban drainage assets
- Overview of the issues to be addressed by Co-UDlabs JRA 3 on Improving resilience and sustainability in urban drainage solutions – (Dr Jerónimo Puertas – Universidade da Coruña (Spain)
- Dealing with London’s legacy of combined sewers (UK) – Andrew Hagger (Thames Water Utilities, UK)
- Development of modular technology for handling and treating rainwater as part of Aalborg Utility´s rainwater management (Denmark) – Prof. Jesper Ellerbæk Nielsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
- Addressing climate change in the City of Almere (Netherlands) – Maria Rus (City of Almere, Netherlands)
- Co-Designing a “Livable Street”: Project ‘LesSON’ and the Future Initiative “Water in the City of Tomorrow” (Germany) – Dr. Daniela Falter (Emschergenossenschaft, Germany)
- Not all SuDS are created equal: Impact of different approaches on combined sewer overflows (Switzerland) – Dr. Joao Paulo Leitão (Co-UDlabs – EAWAG, Switzerland)
This session was followed by a panel discussion on research needs for “Improving resilience and sustainability of urban drainage assets’ and then a final discussion on discussion on the next steps for actioning the workshop’s findings through Co-UDlabs.