Automated screening of control potential with spatially explicit results to support dialogue about sewer overflow reduction and beyond

• Published in: Water research (Oxford) Vol. 256; p. 121527
• Main Authors: Kirstein, N.S.V., Mikkelsen, P.S., Rungø, M., Löwe, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Collaborative design approach; Combined sewer overflow; Control potential screening; Real-time control; Urban drainage; Control potential screening; Real-time control; Urban drainage; Combined sewer overflow; Collaborative design approach
• ISSN: 0043-1354; 1879-2448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121527

•Control investigations should be integrated into existing early planning processes.•Control potential should be derived from dynamic, distributed model simulations.•Drivers and barriers for real-time control are highly case-specific.•Dialogue about e.g. operation is enabled by spatial visualization of potentials.•Utilities’ perception of control potential is misaligned with actual potential. For real-time control to become a standard measure for upgrading urban drainage systems, control potential screenings need to be easily integrated into the early planning processes that already take place. However, current screening methods are either not aligned with the present planning process, unrelatable for water managers or too time-consuming. We therefore developed an automated screening methodology through a co-design process with six Danish utilities. The process started out from a literature review, included interviews and workshops, and resulted in the control potential screening tool COPOTO. In the co-design process, utilities generally responded that indicators based solely on an assessment of static system attributes are insufficient. Thus, COPOTO instead post-processes the results of urban drainage simulation models that are commonly available. The decision context considered in initial planning phases was found to include environmental, economic, social and technical objectives that were highly case-dependent. When presenting CSO reduction potentials, the utilities therefore generally preferred interactive, spatially explicit visualisations that link the CSO reduction at a particular location to the storages and actuators that need to be activated. This enables water managers to discuss, for example, operational constraints of a considered control location. COPOTO provides such assessments with very limited manual and computational effort and thus facilitates the integration of real-time control into standard planning workflows of utilities. [Display omitted]