Author(s): Karen Rojas-Gomez; Sifat Siddik; Diego Novoa-Vazquez And Peter Krebs
Linked Author(s): Peter Krebs
Keywords: Contaminant transport groundwater monitoring risk area identification sewer leakage sewer network management
Abstract: Sewer leakages lead to uncontrolled urban aquifer recharge and contamination of groundwater. Data about the structural conditions of urban drainage networks (UDN) and exfiltration probabilities of pipes is rarely available at city scale. In order to protect urban aquifers, to optimize monitoring systems and to improve sewer network assessment, new approaches to identify vulnerability hotspots regions in urban aquifers are needed. When scarce information is available, open-access data can be used to automatically generate UDN layouts. These layouts can be used to simulate runoff quantity and quality from UDNs and to predict regions affected by sewer-borne contaminants in urban aquifers. This can be valuable for preliminary studies to analyze plume evolution in urban aquifers and to facilitate prioritization of strategic interventions for sewer network assessments. The main objective of this study was to develop a semi-coupled modelling environment to automatically predict strategic locations for sewer network assessments considering spreading of pollutants in urban aquifers and hydraulic conditions of sewer networks. A proof of concept was created using a real-world case study for sewer condition assessment from a risk-based perspective using data from the urban observatory of Dresden, Germany
Year: 2025