title: Coordinated management of combined sewer overflows by means of environmental decision support systems.
abstract: During heavy rainfall, the capacity of sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants may be surcharged producing uncontrolled wastewater discharges and a depletion of the environmental quality. Therefore there is a need of advanced management tools to tackle with these complex problems. In this paper an environmental decision support system (EDSS), based on the integration of mathematical modeling and knowledge-based systems, has been developed for the coordinated management of urban wastewater systems (UWS) to control and minimize uncontrolled wastewater spills. Effectiveness of the EDSS has been tested in a specially designed virtual UWS, including two sewers systems, two WWTP and one river subjected to typical Mediterranean rain conditions. Results show that sewer systems, retention tanks and wastewater treatment plants improve their performance under wet weather conditions and that EDSS can be very effective tools to improve the management and prevent the system from possible uncontrolled wastewater discharges.
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg, 40, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: dmurla@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murla
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain. Electronic address: ogutierrez@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Oriol
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.affiliation: Aqualogy, Diagonal, 211-Agbar Tower, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: mmartinezp@aqualogy.net.
authors.forename: Montse
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: Aqualogy, Diagonal, 211-Agbar Tower, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: dsunyer@aqualogy.net.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Suñer
authors.affiliation: Aqualogy, Diagonal, 211-Agbar Tower, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: pmalgratb@aqualogy.net.
authors.forename: Pere
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Malgrat
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, LEQUIA, University of Girona, 17071 Girona, Spain. Electronic address: mpoch@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Manel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poch
keywords: Combined sewer overflows; Coordinated management; Environmental decision support systems; Urban wastewater systems