Challenges for pumping station design in water industries: An overview of impacts from climate change and energy crisis

Abstract

Uncertain climate change and increasing energy cost become the pressing challenges for either new design or refurbishment of pumping stations in water and wastewater industries. These challenges make more complex to the design work for optimal solutions in meeting current scenarios, unplanned operational behaviors and unpredicted failure. The climate change affects the water level dramatically in dry and wet seasons, stressing and weakening the operation of pumping stations beyond its original flow capability and hydraulic performance. In addition, increasing energy cost from energy crisis poses another challenge on design work for planning the suitable pump sizing, type, configuration, and technologies to make pumping stations more energy and carbon efficient without degrading its full pumping capacity. By surveying relevant pumping-related journals or guidelines after 2000, this paper provides an overview and checklist of design considerations, engineering experience and essential comparisons to mitigate impacts from climate and energy scenarios that help engineers plan and design the most common raw water and sewage pumping stations with higher sustainability and better resilient in future.