Should we turn sewerage modelling on its head?

Abstract

The move towards unlimited financial penalties in the UK for sewerage systems that do not operate in line with their discharge permits (and the even more extreme suggestion that there should be a financial penalty every time an overflow spills) sets a challenge to whether our existing sewerage models are accurate enough to provide certainty of avoiding those penalties. This article sets out proposed improved practice in the preparation of urban drainage models to improve their accuracy and usefulness and identifies areas where research, particularly into machine learning techniques, could deliver further improvements.

Keywords

• combined sewer overflows
• flood risk management
• sewer networks
• stormwater
• urban waste-water