A Systematic Review of the Hydrological, Environmental and Durability Performance of Permeable Pavement Systems
Due to urbanization, large portions of vegetated territory have been replaced by waterproof surfaces. The consequences are greater outflows, lower infiltration, and lower evapotranspiration. Pavement systems made with permeable surfaces allow the infiltration of water, ensuring reduction of runoff volume. In this paper, the methods of analysis of the hydrological and environmental performance of the pavement systems are reviewed in the context of urban drainage and regarding their durability. The purpose is to present an overview of the studies published during the last decade in the field. The Pubmed and Web Science Core Collection electronic databases were used to conduct the scientific l…
Stochastic Approach for Optimal Positioning of Pumps As Turbines (PATs)
A generic water system consists of a series of works that allow the collection, conveyance, storage and finally the distribution of water in quantities and qualities such as to satisfy the needs of end users. In places characterized by high altitude differences between the intake works and inhabited centres, the potential energy of the water is very high. This energy is attributable to high pressures, which could compromise the functionality of the pipelines
Optimal positioning of water quality sensors in water distribution networks: Comparison of numerical and experimental results
In the water distribution networks, a deliberate or accidental contamination causes loss of water quality; the implementation of a real-time sensor network is essential to promptly detect the event of contamination. To achieve the optimum positioning of the probes, to reduce the cost of the instrumentation and maintenance, and obtaining, at the same time, a reliable monitoring of the system, optimization techniques are widely applied. In the present study, a numerical optimisation approach was compared with the results of an experimental campaign. The optimization problem is formulated in accordance with literature stateof- the-art, using the genetic algorithm NSGA-II coupled with a hydraul…
Strategies for Improving Optimal Positioning of Quality Sensors in Urban Drainage Systems for Non-Conservative Contaminants
In the urban drainage sector, the problem of polluting discharges in sewers may act on the proper functioning of the sewer system, on the wastewater treatment plant reliability and on the receiving water body preservation. Therefore, the implementation of a chemical monitoring network is necessary to promptly detect and contain the event of contamination. Sensor location is usually an optimization exercise that is based on probabilistic or black-box methods and their efficiency is usually dependent on the initial assumption made on possible eligibility of nodes to become a monitoring point. It is a common practice to establish an initial non-informative assumption by considering all network…
A Decision Support Tool for Water and Energy Savingin the Integrated Water System
Abstract In the last decades, a growing attention on energy saving associated with water resources usage and leakages reduction has been recorded at both national and international level. Scientific research has focused on implementation of several methodologies aimed at the understanding of energy transformation processes occurring in the integrated water system. The main concern is then identifying energy impacts associated to each macro-area of integrated water system, such as collection, treatment and distribution, and analysing the potential interactions between them. Unfortunately, only overall energy consumptions are usually available at national level. The main objective of the pape…
An Environmental Analysis of the Effect of Energy Saving, Production and Recovery Measures on Water Supply Systems under Scarcity Conditions
Water is one of the primary resources provided for maintaining quality of life and social status in urban areas. As potable water is considered to be a primary need, water service has usually been managed without examining the economic and environmental sustainability of supply processes. Currently, due to increases in energy costs and the growth of environment preservation policies, reducing water leakage, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) production have become primary objectives in reducing the environmental footprint of water service. The present paper suggests the implementation of some performance indicators that show the interdependence of water loss, energy consumption and…
Energy, water and environmental balance of a complex water supply system
The present paper describes the analysis of water and energy balance in a complex urban water supply system. The analysis was carried out employing Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodologies. The LCA approach was integrated with the analysis of the system energy and water balance. For a real size water supply system, based on the results of the individual LCAs, the current baseline was constructed highlighting the water, energy and environmental (in terms of CO2eq emissions in the atmosphere) costs of supplied water. Then, three different mitigation measures have been evaluated: the first is based on energy production by installation of photovoltaic systems; the second is based on energy recov…
Pollutant Emissions in Ports: A Comprehensive Review
In recent decades, maritime transport demand has increased along with world population and global trades. This is associated with higher pollution levels, including the emissions of GHG and other polluting gases. Ports are important elements within maritime transport and contribute themselves to pollutant emissions. This paper aims to offer a comprehensive yet technical review of the latest related technologies, explaining and covering aspects that link ports with emissions, i.e., analyzing, monitoring, assessing, and mitigating emissions in ports. This has been achieved through a robust scientific analysis of very recent and significant research studies, to offer an up-to-date and reliable…
Impact of diffusion and dispersion of contaminants in water distribution networks modelling and monitoring
Abstract In recent years, there has been a need to seek adequate preventive measures to deal with contamination in water distribution networks that may be related to the accidental contamination and the deliberate injection of toxic agents. Therefore, it is very important to create a sensor system that detects contamination events in real time, maintains the reliability and efficiency of measurements, and limits the cost of the instrumentation. To this aim, two problems have to be faced: practical difficulties connected to the experimental verification of the optimal sensor configuration efficiency on real operating systems and challenges related to the reliability of the network modelling …