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The SENVES+ technology of the Catalan Water Research Institute (ICRA), based on intelligent sensors for the real-time monitoring of combined sewer overflows (CSO. Combined Sewer Overflows ), was presented today at the COP26 climate change summit as an example of an innovative solution for the sustainable and low-cost management of water services in cities and thus face the challenges arising from climate change.
Jochen Rabe , director of the Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin, the center for applied water research in charge of coordinating the European project Digital-water.city (DWC) in which ICRA participates, has presented at COP26 the possible solutions to a of the direct consequences of climate change: the overloading of sewers due to the increase in episodes of torrential rain and the consequent overflow of waste water in urban areas and the pollution of the local environment.
One of the highlighted solutions has been the SENVES+ technology developed by ICRA’s Technology and Assessment Area (TiA) with low-cost temperature sensors, which are currently being deployed in Sofia, Berlin and Milan, for monitoring of CSOs and floods.
As Oriol Gutiérrez explains, co-creator of SENVES+ and researcher who leads ICRA’s participation in the DWC, “the main type of sewerage infrastructure in European cities is the sewerage system that we call a unitary network: a single set of pipes transports wastewater to the treatment plant while draining excess rainwater to prevent flooding. This becomes a problem when there is excess stormwater and an overflow occurs, and the mixture of stormwater and wastewater is released directly into the environment without proper treatment. The already detected increase in storm episodes produced by global warming threatens to worsen these problems”.
The proposal developed by Oriol Gutierrez ‘s team is based on a simple concept: “we place smart sensors in specific places in the sewer pipes to measure temperature changes when the water level rises or falls . These sensors capture data from the entire network, which is sent for analysis to a central platform managed by our Spanish partner IoTsens . Finally, the data obtained allows the cities to take practical measures to solve these overflows”.
Several reports highlight that cities need massive investment over the next ten years to ensure compliance with environmental protection and human health. This includes improved treatment capabilities, better control of rainfall events and a significant reduction in sewer overflows. In this sense, ICRA’s SENVES+ solution stands out for reducing the cost of these investments by being a solution with great potential, effective and above all low cost .
About Digital-water.city
ICRA’s research is part of the European project Digital-water.city (DWC) which aims to promote the management of water systems in five large European cities – Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Sofia – taking advantage of the potential of data and digital technologies. The aim is to quantify and communicate the benefits of 15 innovative digital solutions compared to the current practices of European public services. These solutions cover the full range of innovative digital technologies, such as augmented reality, mobile technology, cloud computing, advanced sensors, real-time monitoring, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, modeling and the use of drones .
About Oriol Gutierrez
Oriol Gutierrez is a researcher in the Technology and Evaluation Area of the ICRA, specialist in the development of innovative solutions and digitization of urban waste water sanitation systems. He holds a doctorate in industrial and environmental engineering from the University of Girona and an honorary assistant researcher at the University of Queensland (Australia). He has led several research and knowledge transfer projects both nationally and internationally. And he has also received several awards, both individually and collectively, highlighting the “International Water Association” award for the best applied research project worldwide in 2014 for the “SCORe-Putting science into sewers” project.
