Investing in water supply resilience considering uncertainty and management flexibility

This paper demonstrates how to make investment decisions that optimally improve water supply resilience, taking into consideration both future uncertainty and management flexibility. The demonstration is done by evaluating investment strategies for a 38 Ml/d water treatment plant serving an urban area with approximately 75 000 inhabitants, where there is uncertainty with respect to future population growth, industrial production, external demand and the amount of rainfall due to climate change. It is shown that the quantification and comparison of the possible reductions in service and intervention costs over comparably long periods enables the optimal investment decisions – that is, the ones with the optimal trade-offs between stakeholders. Additionally, it can be seen that the used methodology enables the consistent and transparent consideration of (a) the concerns of multiple stakeholders, (b) the future deep uncertainty associated with key concerns and (c) the flexibility of infrastructure managers to make decisions in the future using new information. The methodology also ensures that managers have clear plans of action and considerable insight into the extent of required future financing.

Soil Water Content Measurement Using Polymer Optical Fibre Bragg Gratings

Measuring soil water content is crucially important and can affect soil strength which is a key parameter in analysis, design and monitoring of geo-structures. In this study, an optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensor inscribed in Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) was developed and for the first time its ability to measure soil water content was investigated. The sensitivity of the sensor to different values of gravimetric soil water content under different compaction conditions of loose and normal compaction was tested. The effect of soil temperature on the sensor’s performance was considered. To assess the sensor’s implementation, accuracy and reliability, a commercial soil water content probe (SM150), which measures volumetric soil water content was employed. The results indicate that the developed sensor when calibrated correctly, is able to provide detailed data on any minor variation of soil water content (e.g. 0.5%) with high precision. The outcomes of this study define an additional capability of the POFBG sensors which is significantly important for long-term performance monitoring of geo-structures.

Improving Building Energy Footprint and Asset Performance Using Digital Twin Technology

This article presents a novel architecture by integrating the existing asset management theory with building simulation technology for effective maintenance strategies and operational control schemes. Building performance, value and energy usage collectively define the criteria for optimization. Building assets are partially or fully connected with building Internet of Things (IoT) and their real time conditions are accessible at all times. An asset’s value is derived from the functional contributions of that asset to the overall business objective of the system that it is part of. The architecture consists of digital twin, analytics and Business Value Model (BVM) engines and in-between gateways for data exchange. The paper provides illustrative examples for how the platform can serve operations and maintenance (O&M) objectives of existing and new buildings.

Feasibility study of floating solar panels over lakes in Bengaluru City

Sustainable energy production has become an issue of prime concern for regions across the globe. With all the global bodies urging nations to explore and adopt clean sources of energy, India’s enormous solar potential provides a sustainable source of energy, replacing conventional sources that are both polluting and rapidly depleting. To produce large amounts of solar energy, solar parks spanning across large areas are required, making it impossible to serve in highly populated cities like Bengaluru, where spacious lands are not available. The rooftop solutions contribute very minimally towards the city’s energy demand because of the dense urban cover and congested planning. But the city has a large number of water bodies including tanks, large lakes and reservoirs. This paper studies the floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) technology to provide an alternative solar route to harness sustainable energy. In this study, 32 lakes within the city limits were considered spanning across 3294 ac of lake area and analysed for the climatic suitability of FSPV systems, solar output assessment and estimation of evaporation losses. The study found that the FSPV systems adopted on lakes with a coverage ratio of 0.5–0.6 could meet an average of 26% of the city’s annual power demand.