Use of real time control modelling on the urban sewage system of Nancy

Abstract

Since 1991, European Legislation on the urban treatment of wastewater requires local authorities to take into account the treatment of polluted water transported by the sewerage system and this during dry and wet weather conditions. In the seventies, the urban Community of Grand Nancy constructed storage tanks in its sewerage system in order to prevent flooding and wish today to use them to reduce and control the pollution discharges into the receiving water. This action is a part of a European LIFE project 1996-2000. The main aim of this project was to assess the effectiveness of reducing pollution of one particular retention basin, the 12,000 m3 Gentilly tank. This one has two operating modes: protection against floods during heavy rain and reduction of pollutant overflows during lighter rain. To assess its effect on the pollutant discharge, the HYDROWORKS DM software and its Real Time Control Module have been used, calibrated and validated. As this study is still in progress, this paper describes the studied site and the modelling results under different weather conditions and shows that the mathematical model can be used to simulate the operation of the catchment area and its associated sewerage system realistically.