scholarly journals Root causes of failures in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS): an exploratory study in 11 municipalities in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vita Vollaers ◽  
Eva Nieuwenhuis ◽  
Frans van de Ven ◽  
Jeroen Langeveld
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Water System ◽  
Maintenance Phase ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems

Abstract Despite being widely implemented, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) do not always function flawlessly. While SUDS have been tested extensively and seem to perform well on a laboratory or pilot scale, practitioners' experience is different: failures in SUDS occur regularly in practice, resulting in malfunctioning systems, water nuisance and high costs. To anticipate their malfunctioning, and thus to improve their performance, a better understanding of failures occurring in SUDS and their underlying causes is needed. Based on an explorative case-study approach, consisting of site visits and semi-structured interviews with urban water professionals, this study presents an inventory of technical failures in SUDS and an analysis of their root causes. In total, 70 cases in 11 Dutch municipalities have been documented. The results show that the interfaces between SUDS and other urban systems are prominent failure locations. In addition, we found that failures originate from the entire development process of SUDS, i.e., from the design, construction and user/maintenance phase. With respect to the causes underlying these failures, our results show that these are mainly socio-institutional in nature. These are valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars, contributing to a renewed socio-technical urban water system with more sustainable water management practices.

Cascade vulnerability for risk analysis of water infrastructure

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1885-1891 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sitzenfrei ◽  
M. Mair ◽  
M. Möderl ◽  
W. Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
Vulnerability Maps

One of the major tasks in urban water management is failure-free operation for at least most of the time. Accordingly, the reliability of the network systems in urban water management has a crucial role. The failure of a component in these systems impacts potable water distribution and urban drainage. Therefore, water distribution and urban drainage systems are categorized as critical infrastructure. Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is likely to experience harm induced by perturbation or stress. However, for risk assessment, we usually assume that events and failures are singular and independent, i.e. several simultaneous events and cascading events are unconsidered. Although failures can be causally linked, a simultaneous consideration in risk analysis is hardly considered. To close this gap, this work introduces the term cascade vulnerability for water infrastructure. Cascade vulnerability accounts for cascading and simultaneous events. Following this definition, cascade risk maps are a merger of hazard and cascade vulnerability maps. In this work cascade vulnerability maps for water distribution systems and urban drainage systems based on the ‘Achilles-Approach’ are introduced and discussed. It is shown, that neglecting cascading effects results in significant underestimation of risk scenarios.

scholarly journals Community Involvement in the Implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDSs): The Case of Bon Pastor, Barcelona

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Nóblega Carriquiry ◽  
David Sauri ◽  
Hug March
Keyword(s):  
Community Involvement ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Neighborhood Scale

The persistence of urban floods and the inability of aging sewage infrastructure to deal with stormwater make sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) one of the emerging paradigms in urban water management, in which stormwater is no longer a hazard but a resource. Although most of the global research has been done on the technical aspects of SUDSs, their social impacts are not always taken into consideration. The neighborhood scale that characterizes SUDSs creates a different governance system—compared to the old structures of flood risk management—characterized by decentralization practices and where communities gain a better position of negotiation and new responsibilities. The objective of this research is to recognize how the diverse stakeholders involved in SUDSs interact with each other and to look into the different levels of understanding SUDSs as a new alternative of stormwater infrastructure. In order to accomplish this task, the paper introduces the case of the neighborhood of Bon Pastor (Barcelona, Spain), which has gone through urban transformations over the past years, promoting the development of SUDSs in 2012. Empirical evidence was obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews with government, technicians, social organizations, and local community citizens as well as revision of existing policy documents and grey literature on SUDSs and historical documents on the development of the neighborhood. The results show how active the community was during the design process and afterward, as sustainability gradually became one of the main topics in the neighborhood to be incorporated in new developments. However, it also unveiled several issues related to maintenance and the ambiguity of the term SUDS for the different stakeholders involved.

Review of operation of urban drainage systems in cold weather: water quality considerations

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Marsalek ◽  
G. Oberts ◽  
K. Exall ◽  
M. Viklander
Keyword(s):  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Melting Process ◽  
Cold Climate ◽  
Cold Weather ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Snow And Ice

Cold climate imposes special requirements on urban drainage systems, arising from extended storage of precipitation and pollutants in the catchment snowpack, processes occurring in the snowpack, and changes in catchment surface and transport network by snow and ice. Consequently, the resulting catchment response and runoff quantity differ from those experienced in snow- and ice-free seasons. Sources of pollutants entering urban snowpacks include airborne fallout, pavement and roadside deposits, and applications of de-icing and anti-skid agents. In the snowpack, snow, water and chemicals are subject to various processes, which affect their movement through the pack and eventual release during the melting process. Soluble constituents are flushed from the snowpack early during the melt; hydrophobic substances generally stay in the pack until the very end of melt and coarse solids with adsorbed pollutants stay on the ground after the melt is finished. The impacts of snowmelt on receiving waters have been measured mostly by the snowmelt chemical composition and inferences about its environmental significance. Recently, snowmelt has been tested by standard bioassays and often found toxic. Toxicity was attributed mostly to chloride and trace metals, and contributed to reduced diversity of benthic and plant communities. Thus, snowmelt and winter runoff discharged from urban drainage threaten aquatic ecosystems in many locations and require further studies with respect to advancing their understanding and development of best management practices.

scholarly journals Rehabilitación hidrológica de barrios a través de sistemas urbanos de drenaje sostenible = Hydrological rehabilitation of neighbourhoods using sustainable urban drainage systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Carmen Calama-González ◽  
Jose María Calama-Rodriguez ◽  
Cecilia Cañas-Palop
Keyword(s):  
Water Cycle ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

ResumenEste artículo es una síntesis del proyecto de investigación realizado en la Universidad de Sevilla para diseñar un modelo de análisis que permita la comprobación de la viabilidad técnica y socioeconómica de los proyectos de rehabilitación hidrológica de barrios urbanos, mediante la construcción de infraestructuras de drenaje sostenibles. El modelo propuesto presenta novedades significativas con respecto a los empleados tradicionalmente en los sistemas urbanos de drenaje sostenible. En primer lugar, se parte de la base de la realización de análisis previos que permitan comprobar la posibilidad de recuperación del agua de lluvia para que, tras sencillos tratamientos para eliminar sus posibles contaminantes, pueda ser usada en labores urbanas del barrio que no requieren agua de calidad. Además, al plantearse como un proyecto cuyo objetivo es “la rehabilitación hidrológica” de un barrio urbano habitado, se contempla medidas clave para conseguir la interacción con los agentes sociales que intervendrán en la gestión local del ciclo del agua, incluyendo medidas sociales y educativas relacionadas con el uso del agua. La finalidad del modelo es aportar los suficientes datos, tanto relacionados con las características del lugar como con la calidad del agua, para poder diseñar unos Sistemas Urbanos de Drenaje Sostenible que sean adecuados.AbstractThis paper summarizes a research project conducted in the University of Seville, in order to design an analysis model that allows the assessment of technical and socio-economic viability of hydrological rehabilitation projects in urban neighbourhoods, through the construction of sustainable drainage infrastructures. The model proposed presents significant developments when compared with the ones traditionally used in sustainable urban drainage systems. On the one hand, the possibility of recovering rainwater with simple treatments, eliminating potential contaminants, has been verified previously, testing water for urban purposes with no quality requirements. Moreover, since the main objective of this project is the “hydrological rehabilitation” of an inhabited neighbourhood, the interaction with social agents is a key factor that must be considered for a more appropriate local management of the water cycle, thus social and educational measurements related to the use of water have been included. The aim of this model is to present sufficient data, both referred to the water quality and hydrological conditions of the neighborhood, in order to design adequate Sustainable Drainage Urban Systems.

Stormwater infiltration trenches: a conceptual modelling approach

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Freni ◽  
Giorgio Mannina ◽  
Gaspare Viviani
Keyword(s):  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Conceptual Modelling ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Performance Reduction ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modelling Approach ◽  
Modelling Approaches

In recent years, limitations linked to traditional urban drainage schemes have been pointed out and new approaches are developing introducing more natural methods for retaining and/or disposing of stormwater. These mitigation measures are generally called Best Management Practices or Sustainable Urban Drainage System and they include practices such as infiltration and storage tanks in order to reduce the peak flow and retain part of the polluting components. The introduction of such practices in urban drainage systems entails an upgrade of existing modelling frameworks in order to evaluate their efficiency in mitigating the impact of urban drainage systems on receiving water bodies. While storage tank modelling approaches are quite well documented in literature, some gaps are still present about infiltration facilities mainly dependent on the complexity of the involved physical processes. In this study, a simplified conceptual modelling approach for the simulation of the infiltration trenches is presented. The model enables to assess the performance of infiltration trenches. The main goal is to develop a model that can be employed for the assessment of the mitigation efficiency of infiltration trenches in an integrated urban drainage context. Particular care was given to the simulation of infiltration structures considering the performance reduction due to clogging phenomena. The proposed model has been compared with other simplified modelling approaches and with a physically based model adopted as benchmark. The model performed better compared to other approaches considering both unclogged facilities and the effect of clogging. On the basis of a long-term simulation of six years of rain data, the performance and the effectiveness of an infiltration trench measure are assessed. The study confirmed the important role played by the clogging phenomenon on such infiltration structures.

scholarly journals Modeling and interpreting hydrological responses of sustainable urban drainage systems with explainable machine learning methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 5839-5858
Author(s):  
Yang Yang ◽  
Ting Fong May Chui
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Large Uncertainty ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Hydrological Responses ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems

Abstract. Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) are decentralized stormwater management practices that mimic natural drainage processes. The hydrological processes of SuDS are often modeled using process-based models. However, it can require considerable effort to set up these models. This study thus proposes a machine learning (ML) method to directly learn the statistical correlations between the hydrological responses of SuDS and the forcing variables at sub-hourly timescales from observation data. The proposed methods are applied to two SuDS catchments with different sizes, SuDS practice types, and data availabilities in the USA for discharge prediction. The resulting models have high prediction accuracies (Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, NSE, >0.70). ML explanation methods are then employed to derive the basis of each ML prediction, based on which the hydrological processes being modeled are then inferred. The physical realism of the inferred hydrological processes is then compared to that would be expected based on the domain-specific knowledge of the system being modeled. The inferred processes of some models, however, are found to be physically implausible. For instance, negative contributions of rainfall to runoff have been identified in some models. This study further empirically shows that an ML model's ability to provide accurate predictions can be uncorrelated with its ability to offer plausible explanations to the physical processes being modeled. Finally, this study provides a high-level overview of the practices of inferring physical processes from the ML modeling results and shows both conceptually and empirically that large uncertainty exists in every step of the inference processes. In summary, this study shows that ML methods are a useful tool for predicting the hydrological responses of SuDS catchments, and the hydrological processes inferred from modeling results should be interpreted cautiously due to the existence of large uncertainty in the inference processes.

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