Modeling the quality of sewage during the leaking of stormwater surface runoff to the sanitary sewer system using SWMM: a case study

This paper describes the application of the storm water management model (SWMM) for predicting the sewage quality in the sanitary sewer system of the study area resulting from the leaking of stormwater surface runoff to the system during rainfall events at different return periods. The concentrations of major pollutants were assessed in the sanitary sewer system at different rainfall intensities. Then, a solution to mitigate the problem was proposed using low impact development (LID) technology. The results of sensitivity analysis indicated that maximum build-up possible was the most sensitive parameter for model calibration. The model was calibrated using actual rainfall events, and statistical validation coefficients of R (0.81–0.82) and NMSE (0.0173–0.022) proved that the model is valid. The sewage quality assessment results showed that pollutants concentration increased to its maximum level at 20 min and gradually decreased to a slightly constant minimum value after 2 h. The proposed solution of LID reduced the pollutants concentrations by 82–88, 75–77, 52–55, and 7–10% for all pollutants at return periods of 2, 5, 10, and 25 years, respectively. To conclude, SWMM simulation successfully predicted the concentration of the pollutants, and leaking of stormwater surface runoff has changed the sewage quality.

Flexible and deterministic household water saving under water demand uncertainty: existing water distribution system and sanitary sewer perspectives

An integrated method that evaluates conflicting hydraulic performances of water distribution systems (WDSs) and sanitary sewers (SSs) considering water-saving schemes (WSSs) under fixed (deterministic) or uncertain water demands was formulated. WSSs considered include household water-saving fixtures and appliances whose water flows impact water distribution system (WDS) and sanitary sewer (SS) hydraulic performances in different ways. In the proposed flexible approach, a multi-objective optimisation problem was formulated and solved considering trade-offs of three objectives: (1) maximisation of the average cost savings (2) maximisation of the average WDS resilience index and (3) minimisation of the average SS self-cleansing velocity deficit factor. The decision variables include water-saving fixture and appliance capacities that are applied in a deterministic or flexible manner at a household level. The constraints include WDS and SS hydraulic requirements together with decision bounds of the available water-saving scheme capacities. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was used to obtain trade-off solutions. This method was demonstrated in the corresponding WDS and SS network subsystems of Tsholofelo extension in Gaborone, Botswana. The results indicate that WSSs lead to visibly conflicting WDS and SS hydraulic performances. Moreover, considering uncertainty inherent in water demand and the corresponding planning and management of WDSs and SSs provides more sustainable solutions as demand uncertainties unveil.

Method for assessing the impact of rainfall depth on the stormwater volume in a sanitary sewage network

Sanitary sewage network is relatively rarely considered as the cause of urban floods. Its hydraulic overload can result not only in flooding, but also sanitary contamination of subcatchments. Stormwater is the main reason for this overload. In contrast to the stormwater or combined sewer system, these waters infiltrate into the network in an uncontrolled way, through ventilation holes of covers or structural faults and lack of tightness of manholes. Part of stormwater infiltrates into the soil, where it leaks into pipelines. This greatly hinders assessing the quantity of stormwater influent into the sanitary sewer system. Standard methods of finding correlation between rainfall and the intensity of stormwater flow are ineffective. This is confirmed, i.a. by the studies performed in an existing network, presented in this paper. Only when residuals analysis was performed using the ARIMA and ARIMAX methods, the authors were able to develop a mathematical model enabling to assess the influence of rainfall depth on the stormwater effluent from the sewage network. Owing to the possibility of using the rainfall depth forecasts, the developed mathematical model enables to prepare the local water and sewerage companies for the occurrence of urban floods as well as hydraulic overload of wastewater treatment plants.

Analysis of the Inflow Characteristics of Separate Sewer Systems for Rainfall Using an XP-SWMM Model and the SSOAP Toolbox

Even after the sewer system rehabilitation project, sewer system-related problems caused by inflow still persist. However, analysis of the characteristics of the inflow has been limited to specific rainfall events and monitoring points. This study analyzed inflow characteristics according to rainfall events using an XP-SWMM model and the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Analysis and Planning (SSOAP) Toolbox. In this study, the XP-SWMM model was built for sewers and collecting pipes in urban areas where classification projects were completed. The R, T, and K parameters were calculated using the SSOAP tool based on the sewer volume data of the study area. The calculated parameters were inputted into the XP-SWMM model and used to analyze R, T, and K of unmeasured sampling intervals. The amount of rainfall-derived inflow and infiltration (RDII) increased according to the amount of rainfall, and the correlation coefficient between the amount of rainfall and the amount of RDII was 0.9352, indicating a high correlation. The results of this study can support efficient facility planning that reflects the rainfall characteristics of specific areas, including areas where actual survey of sewage data is not possible.