Potentials of real time control, stormwater infiltration and urine separation to minimize river impacts: dynamic long term simulation of sewer network, pumping stations, pressure pipes and waste water treatment plant

Abstract

River Panke (Berlin, Germany) suffers from hydraulic peak loads and pollutant loads from separate sewers and combined sewer overflows (CSOs). Pumping the wastewater through long pressure pipes causes extreme peak loads to the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) during stormwater events. In order to find a good solution, it is essential not to decide on one approach at the beginning, but to evaluate a number of different approaches. For this reason, an integrated simulation study is carried out, assessing the potentials of real time control (RTC), stormwater infiltration, storage and urine separation. Criteria for the assessment are derived and multi-criteria analysis is applied. Despite spatial limitations, infiltration has the highest potential and is very effective with respect to both overflows and the WWTP. Due to a high percentage of separate systems, urine separation has a similar potential and causes the strongest benefits at the WWTP. Unconventional control strategies can lead to significant improvement (comparable to infiltrating the water from approximately 10% of the sealed area).