CWS Newsletter

Welcome to the first newsletter from the Centre for Water Systems

There is still time to apply for the MSc in Urban Water Systems for October 2008

The Centre for Water Systems (CWS) is located within the University’s School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (SECaM). It specialises in the develop-ment and application of hydroinfomatics particularly in the area of urban water sys-tems. With a research income of over £300,000 per year and approximately 20 research-ers, the Centre is the largest in its field in the UK and has international links in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australasia. In this newsletter we hope to give you a taste of what we do. Please contact us if you have questions about any of the items in this issue or if you think we could as-sist you or collaborate in areas such as research, training or recruitment. Professor Dragan Savic Professor David Butler Directors, Centre for Water Systems We are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Centre for Water Sys-tems in 2008 - more news on this to follow!

The only course of its type in the UK, this course draws on the experience and cut-ting-edge research capability of the Centre staff together with external lecturers from leading companies and government agencies. This programme will train you in the essentials of urban water supply and urban drainage technology together with the hydroinformatic tools for simulating their per-formance, all in a context that encourages a wide integrated systems approach to their implementation. Topical issues covered include: Water losses and leakage, Water efficiency, Climate change, Sustainability, Asset management, Whole-life costing, Urban flooding, Integrated modelling, Risk and uncertainty. For full programme details and how to apply visit: www.exeter.ac.uk/cws/msc

Inside this issue:

UK Collaboration 2

Consultancy 2

Overseas partnerships 3

Research projects 4

Recent publications 5

Forthcoming events 6

How to contact us 6

Special points of inter-est: • MSc in Urban Water

Systems • Working with Hydro

International • Developing water pipe

deterioration models • Partners in Europe, the

Middle East and China

Volume 1, Issue 1

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“The project looks set to pro-vide significant benefits to the company, and lay the basis for a long-term partnership with the CWS.”

UK Collaboration

Consultancy

KTP with Hydro International The DTI’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme is designed to help busi-nesses acquire knowledge and expertise by working with an academic and a recent graduate on a project that is of strategic importance to the company. Under this scheme, Dr Gavin Tabor and Prof David Butler are working on the use of CFD and GAs in product development processes at Hydro International PLC. Hydro International develops and supplies a range of devices for the water industry, with particular focus on stormwater and wastewater control. These include flow regulators that will allow a limited flow of water through unimpeded whilst holding it back temporarily if excess flow rates are experienced, for instance, during extreme wet weather, preventing flooding downstream of the device. They also manufacture separators for intercepting solid debris and undesirable pollutants from the flow, which might then be discharged into an environmentally-sensitive location such as a stream or river. The devices themselves are simple in form, but rely on complex hy-drodynamic phenomena in their operation; their commercial edge over competitors thus rests in having an efficient design coupled with a good understanding of the parameters governing operation such that products can be tailored to meet individ-ual customer's requirements. Sophisticated design tools used and developed at the Centre for Water Systems will help them with this design requirement. The project looks set to provide significant benefits to the company, and lay the basis for a long-term partnership with the CWS.

Pipe Deterioration Modelling for Anglian Water Dr Zoran Kapelan and Prof Dragan Savic were recently involved in consultancy work for Mouchel to help develop water and waste water pipe deterioration models for the whole of the Anglian Water company. The methodology used is based on the Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) developed by us and the Technical Uni-versity of Bari (Prof. Orazio Giustolisi). The EPR software produces explicit equa-tions linking pipe attributes (e.g., age, diameter, etc.) to their performance (e.g., bursts/burst rates or blockages and collapses). A risk model was developed linking the likelihood of pipe failure to its consequences. The project was carried out as part of the PR09 submission process. Contacts: Dr Zoran Kapelan (z.kapelan@ex.ac.uk), Prof. Dragan Savic (d.savic@ex.ac.uk).

Handling Uncertainty in the Water Resources Planning Process Dr Zoran Kapelan and Prof Dragan Savic are currently involved in consultancy work for Halcrow advising the Environment Agency on the issue of handling uncertainty in the water resources planning process. The aim is to find both short and long term solutions for the problem analysed. Contacts: Dr Zoran Kapelan (z.kapelan@ex.ac.uk), Prof. Dragan Savic (d.savic@ex.ac.uk).

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Talks in Pakistan

China In November 2007 Professor Savic and Dr Khu were invited to give key note talks at the Chinese Water Distribution System conference organised by the Chinese Urban Water Association (CUWA). The Conference was held in Shanghai and at-tracted over a hundred researchers and professionals. Prof. Savic's talk was titled "Modelling and optimisation for pipe rehabilitation planning", while Dr Khu spoke on "Water quality modelling in water distribution systems".

A workshop in Iran

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Overseas partnerships We have partners in Europe, North America, Australia, the Middle East and China. The following are some of the latest activities with our overseas partners.

Workshops in Iran

Pakistan

Europe The Royal Academy of Engineering recently awarded a Distinguished Visiting Fel-lowship to Professor Erik Pasche from Hamburg University of Technology in GER-MANY to spend a month in Exeter. Professor Pasche shared his expertise in deal-ing with flooding with the CWS through various forms of collaborative research.

Prof. David Butler and Dr Fayyaz Ali Memon visited PAKISTAN to kick off a 3 year DeLPHE (British Council/DFID funded) project on capacity building for urban water demand management. The project involves setting up pilot scale greywater recy-cling facilities in three higher education institutions (Mehran University of Engi-neering and Technology, Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam and National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry) in Pakistan. The CWS team will help with the curriculum design for an MSc module on water demand management, re-search portfolio development and the organisation of regional workshops and an international conference. The Vice Chancellors from the two Pakistani universities greeted the team and appreciated its efforts in initiating collaborative research in Pakistan. We look forward to welcoming a visiting team from Pakistan later in the year.

In January the Environmental Research Centre at Amirkabir University hosted a workshop in Tehran, IRAN, in collaboration with the British Council, entitled ‘International Workshop on Urban Water, Water Supply, Drainage Systems Waste-water Management and Wastewater Reuse’. Prof. Dragan Savic, Prof. David But-ler, Dr. Zoran Kapelan and Dr. Slobodan Djordjevic gave several talks during the two-day workshop and met people working for various water and wastewater com-panies, both in the public and private sectors, and environmental organisations. They also attended a seminar ‘International Water and Wastewater Treatment Sys-tems’ held in the northern city of Amol. The visit was concluded by a formal meet-ing at the Ministry of Energy of Iran in Water and Wastewater Operation. Ideas for future academic and professional collaboration were identified during the visit and will be pursued by the Environmental Research Centre at the Amirkabir University

Meetings in China

Visit us at: www.exeter.ac.uk/cws

Visiting Fellow, Professor Erik Pasche

Research projects

At any point in time we are involved in a number of projects funded by external fun-ders (e.g., the UK Water Industry, EPSRC, Defra, the European Commission). The following are some of the recently secured projects. Further projects and details can be found by visiting www.exeter.ac.uk/cws/projects.

Sustainable Urban Environment Projects Urban Futures The aim of this research consortium is to establish and test, with respect to sustainability, alternative urban futures in the context of urban regenera-tion. The work will use the WaND futures as its starting point and CWS is responsi-ble for all aspects relating to the urban water cycle.

ReVISIONS This project aims to provide the knowledge and evidence base for public agencies and private companies to plan regional development together with infrastructure for transport, water, waste and energy (ranging from large capital schemes to small scale decentralised services), in a more coordinated and inte-grated way. CWS is again responsible for the urban water cycle aspects.

The Use of Probabilistic Climate Data to Future-Proof Design De-cisions in the Buildings Sector The goal of this research, is to develop a method of using climate prediction within the construction industry to take account of the limitations of the information on which it is based and be flexible to changes in both the detail and the overall form of the climate projections. CWS’s main role is with respect to rainfall data. Contacts: Professor David Butler (d.butler@ex.ac.uk), Dr Fayyaz Memmon (f.a.memon@ex.ac.uk), Dr Christos Makropoulos (c.makropoulos@ex.ac.uk)

Flood Risk Management Research Consortium, Phase 2 (FRMRC2) The overall goal of this project, funded by the EPSRC and the EA/Defra, is to en-hance understanding of and ability to reduce flood risk through the development of appropriate long term flood prevention, management and mitigation strategies. CWS’s main role is in the urban flood management area. Contacts: Dr Slobodan Djordjevic (s.djordjevic@ex.ac.uk), Dr Gavin Tabor (g.r.tabor@ex.ac.uk) and Prof. Dragan Savic (d.savic@ex.ac.uk)

CREW (Community Resilience to Extreme Weather) EPSRC recently awarded this grant to the multidisciplinary consortium of sixteen UK universities, including CWS, to develop and test a set of tools for improving the ca-pacity for resilience of local communities to the impacts of extreme weather events (www.extreme-weather-impacts.net). Contact: Dr Slobodan Djordjevic (s.djordjevic@ex.ac.uk)

NEPTUNE project The NEPTUNE Project is a Strategic Partnership between EPSRC, ABB, Yorkshire Water and United Utilities (www.neptune.ac.uk). The project aims to develop prag-matic, robust and novel methods and technologies to understand system perform-ance in real time in order to improve customer service, efficiency and sustainability of water distribution systems. The project is structured into three Research Priority Areas (RPAS): (1) RPA1: Data, Sensors, Knowledge; (2) RPA2: Pressure Manage-ment and (3) RPA3: Risk-Based DSS. The CWS is leading RPA3 and involved in RPA2. Contacts: Prof. Dragan Savic (d.savic@ex.ac.uk), Dr Zoran Kapelan (z.kapelan@ex.ac.uk), Dr Christos Makropoulos (c.makropoulos@ex.ac.uk)

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Congratulations!

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Recent publications

Khu S-T. , di Pierro F., Savic D. , Djordjevic S. and Walters G. A. (2006), “Incorporating spatial and temporal information for urban drainage model calibration: an approach using Preference ordering genetic algorithm”, Advances in Water Resources 29(8). doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2005.09.009 Kapelan, Z., Savic, D.A. and Walters, G.A. (2007), “Calibration of WDS Hydraulic Models using the Bayesian Recursive Procedure”, ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 133(8), 927-936. Berardi, L., Kapelan, Z., Giustolisi, O. and Savic, D.A. (2008), “Development of Pipe deterioration models for Water Distribution Systems using EPR”, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 10(2), 113-126. Djordjević, S., Prodanović, D., Maksimović, Č., Ivetić M. and Savic, D.A. (2005) "SIPSON – Simulation of in-teraction between pipe flow and surface overland flow in networks", Water Science and Technology, 52(5), 275-283. Makropoulos C., Koutsoyiannis D., Stanic M., Djordjevic S., Prodanovic D., Dasic T. , Prohaska S., Maksi-movic C., and Wheater H. (2008) "A multi-model approach to the simulation of large scale karst flows", Jour-nal of Hydrology, 348, 412– 424 Savic, D.A., Djordjevic,S., Dorini,G., Shepherd, W., Cashman A., and Saul, A. J. (2005) "COST-S – a new methodology and tools for sewerage asset management based on whole life costs", Water Asset Management International, 1(4), 20-24. Memon, F.A., Butler, D., Han, W., Shuming, L., Makropoulos, C., Avery, L. & Pidou, M. (2005) “Economic as-sessment tool for greywater recycling systems”, Proc. ICE Engineering Sustainability, 158(3), 155-161. Makropoulos C. & Butler, D. (2006) “Spatial ordered weighted averaging: incorporating spatially variable atti-tudes towards risk in spatial multi-criteria decision making”, Environmental Modelling and Software, 21(1), 69-84. Jarman, D.S., Faram M., Tabor, G. and Butler, D. (2007) “A review of the opportunities presented through the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to water management challenges”, Water Management Challenges in Global Change. CCWI2007 and SUWM2007 Conference, Leicester, Sept.

Dr. Philip Jonkergouw – awarded a PhD in October 2007, is currently working with MWH (UK) High Wy-combe Dr. Yufeng Guo – awarded a PhD in January 2008, is now an environmental project team leader, with EDAW Ltd , Shenzhen, China Dr. Francesco di Pierro – awarded a PhD in March 2007 is now a post- doctoral research associate at the Centre for Water Systems, Exeter. Dr. Yang Liu – awarded a PhD in July 2005 is now a post-doctoral research associate with the Bioanalytical Science Group, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Manchester Sally Walters – awarded an MPhil. is currently working with Pell Frischmann in Exeter Dr Shuming Liu – a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Water Systems is now an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Dr Ana-Maria Millan-Vilaneda – formerly a post-doctoral researcher at the CWS is now an analyst in the Con-sumer Council for Water, Birmingham. Dr GianLuca Dorini – awarded a PhD in February 2008, is now a post-doctoral research associate at the Cen-tre for Water Systems, Exeter.

Visit us at: www.exeter.ac.uk/cws

MSc in Urban Water Systems

Full and part-time places are available to start in October 2008. Contact: cws@exeter.ac.uk

Diary

BHS National Symposium 2008 The Centre for Water Systems is hosting the BHS National Symposium www.events.ex.ac.uk/bhs2008/ from 15 to 17 September 2008 This exciting event brings together hydrologists, water engineers and those working in related fields. The symposium will take the form of structured but informal technical meetings, with the opportunity to mix science and hydrological practice. Technical sessions are divided into 9 sub-themes aimed at addressing the over-arching topic of ‘Sustainable Hydrology for the 21st Century’:Water Resources, Flood Risk Man-agement, Climate change and Water, Hydrometeo-rology , Urban Water, Ungauged Catchments, Hy-droecology, Water Quality, Groundwater. Contact: Dr Soon-Thiam Khu (BHS_Symposium_2008@exeter.ac.uk).

PUrE Conference 2008 The main aim of the PUrE (Pollutants in Urban Envi-ronment) conference is to bring together internation-ally-leading researchers and experts to help address the challenges posed by pollution in cities. The con-ference will provide a forum for researchers and pro-fessionals from academia, industry and other organi-sations as well as policy makers to present and dis-cuss state-of-the-art developments in this field and to identify key future research needs. Conference themes include: sources of pollution, pollutant fate and transport modelling, environmental, ecological and health impacts, sustainability assessment, ur-ban behaviour and public perception, changes in pollution policy and liability, risk and uncertainty, de-cision-support tools and case studies. The confer-ence will be held 17-19 September 2008 at the Uni-versity of Manchester (for more details visit: www.pureconference.org.uk ). Contact: Dr Zoran Kapelan (z.kapelan@exeter.ac.uk).

WATERSAVE event The next WATERSAVE workshop is scheduled to take place on 18th July 2008 at the Centre for Water Systems. The workshop will include expert presenta-tions on aspects related to Water Demand Manage-ment, Industry perspectives and overseas experi-ences. For registration and further details please contact Dr Fayyaz Memon, f.a.memon@exeter.ac.uk. Presentations from past workshops are available on www.watersave.uk.net.

Organization

Centre for Water Systems School of Engineering, Computing and

Mathematics Harrison Building North Park Road

Phone: 01392-263732 Fax: 01392-217965

E-mail: cws@exeter.ac.uk

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/cws/

Please contact us to find out more about any of the topics featured in this newsletter

CWS Newsletter

For full programme details visit: www.exeter.ac.uk/cws/msc

Visit us at: www.exeter.ac.uk/cws