Publicações

Twenty-four pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) were evaluated in the soft tissues of clams Ruditappesdecussatus exposed along a 1.5-km dispersal gradient of the treated effluent from an urban wastewater treatment plant discharging in Ria Formosa, and compared with those in the marine waters and discharged effluents.

The urban water sector significantly contributes to energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Detailed assessment of the wastewater system input provides opportunities for improving the water, energy, and emissions nexus. The inflow of water not requiring treatment into wastewater systems is acknowledged worldwide. These undue inflows can increase the footprint of these systems. Together with flooding and discharges, monitoring of undue inflows is not a common practice in water utilities. Three levels of analysis are proposed to assess the magnitude of the impact of undue inflows in the water

Pressurized powdered activated carbon/coagulation/ceramic microfiltration (PAC/Alum/MF) was investigated at pilot scale for treating low turbidity and low natural organic matter (NOM) surface waters spiked with organic microcontaminants.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are significant reservoirs of bacterial resistance. This work aims to identify the determinants of resistance produced by Gram-negative bacteria in the influent and effluent of two WWTPs in Portugal. A total of 96 wastewater samples were obtained between 2016 and 2019. The numbers of total aerobic and fecal contamination bacteria were evaluated, and genomic features were searched by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). Enterobacteriaceae corresponded to 78.6% (n = 161) of the 205 isolates identified by 16sRNA. The most frequent isolates were Escherichia spp. (57.1%, n = 117), followed by Aeromonas spp. (16.1%, n = 33) and Klebsiella spp. (12.7%, n = 26). The remaining 29 isolates (14.1%) were distributed across 10 different genera. Among the 183 resistant genes de-tected, 54 isolates produced extended spectrum

Water services

Os contaminantes de interesse emergente (CIE) incluem, entre outros, produtos de cuidado pessoal, fármacos, pesticidas e cianotoxinas produzidas por cianobactérias tóxicas. A água é o veículo preferencial para transportar os CIE através de diferentes compartimentos ambientais. Alguns destes compostos podem ter efeitos tóxicos, cancerígenos, mutagénicos e de desregulação endócrina em concentrações muito reduzidas, e os seus efeitos sinergéticos e crónicos estão ainda pouco documentados ou são desconhecidos. Neste artigo discutem-se soluções tecnológicas para controlo de CIE em ETA e ETAR.

Designing for exceedance events consists in designing a continuous route for overland flow to deal with flows exceeding the sewer system

This paper presents and discusses the application of a novel energy balance scheme for assessing energy efficiency in wastewater systems. The energy balance is demonstrated with a Portuguese real-life case study, using mathematical modelling to estimate the different energy components and to compute two energy efficiency indices. The total inflow intrinsic energy can represent a significant amount (>95%) of the total energy used in systems mainly composed of gravity sewers. The total input energy is significantly (four-times) higher in the wet season than in the dry season, mostly due to undue inflows (e.g., direct rainfall and infiltration). The potential for energy recovery strongly depends on the available head and flow rate at the delivery point, being 0.01 kWh/m3 in the current case, with a project payback period of 4 years. The energy balance components and the respective energy efficiency indices strongly depend on the considered reference elevation. Thus, a unique regional reference elevation is recommended in the calculations.

Two pilot trials of powdered activated carbon (PAC)/(coagulation)/ceramic microfiltration were conducted to compare continuous 10

Water treatment technologies improvement is the key to face current water quality challenges (2030Agenda). A challenge in wastewater treatment and water reuse relates to the presence of micropollutants in raw water, the latter often related with pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs). Although WWTPs are crucial barriers against PhCs, many of these compounds are resistant to conventional treatments, thus cost-effective and resource efficient solutions based on existing infrastructure are essential. LIFE Impetus project (LIFE14 ENV/PT/000739) aims at demonstrating feasible measures for improving the control of PhCs in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment. Namely, strategies based on chemically enhanced barriers, with adsorbent and/or coagulant addition, are underway. New powdered activated carbons (PACs) are being developed from industrial wastes available in Portugal (cork, carob processing residues and pinion shell) by chemical and steam activation. The novel biomass-derived PACs (apparent surface areas > 1000 m2/g) are being benchmarked against commercial counterparts. Selected lab-made PACs were already used in laboratory tests assessing the competitive adsorption of a short-list of representative PhCs (diclofenac - DCF, carbamazepine - CBZ and sulfamethoxazole - SMX). Adsorption studies were conducted in synthetic inorganic matrix and in real wastewater effluents from one of the CAS-WWTPs selected as case study. For the carob-derived PAC, 10 to 20 mg/L are needed to attain, in 5 h of contact time, 80% removal of the target PhCs in the mixed liquor of that WWTP.

A set of laboratory experiments on large scale models of different transition drop manhole/downstream sewer was conducted. The results obtained show evident influence from the different configurations on discharge coefficients and energy dissipation.

There is a significant potential for an increased use of reclaimed wastewater in Europe and a major challenge is to protect the environment and human health without blocking the development of water reuse programs. No legal requirements have been set for pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) discharge into surface water bodies; however, changes in legislation may arise as a result of their monitoring in the water bodies (e.g. through the watch list of the environmental quality standards directive) and sound cause-effect (e.g. risk cancer increase or reproductive abnormalities) studies. The largest input source of PhCs into the aquatic environment is through wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and, since many of such compounds are resistant to conventional treatment, it is important to anticipate solutions for improving the performance of those infrastructures as crucial barriers for controlling PhCs, and ultimately for the preservation of drinking water sources and the development of safe water reuse projects. The development of technology safety credits towards PhCs control is essential for assisting risk assessment studies, key tools for effective safe water reuse programs. In this perspective, our team has been developing two approaches for controlling PhCs in reclaimed water, on one hand the enhancement of conventional treatment and, on the other hand, the use of advanced wastewater treatment, presenting in this communication one case study for each. Case study I (LIFE Impetus project) focuses the chemical enhancement of conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment through the addition of commercial and local vegetal waste-based tailored powdered activated carbons (PACs). Case study II (LIFE aWARE project) focuses a PAC/loose nanofiltration (PAC/NF) process for advanced treatment of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent from a Spanish WWTP plant. In case study I, lab adsorption studies and modeling allowed calibrating predictive models of the PAC adsorption capacity and rate. Results anticipate that the addition of 6 mg/L PAC to a well-mixed bioreactor with 12 h of contact time is able to remove 80% of target PhCs. A long-term pilot-scale demonstration with PAC addition to activated sludge systems is on-going in two Portuguese WWTPs. In case study II, two PAC/NF lab configurations were selected and tested at lab scale: i) one with a single PAC dose at the beginning of the filtration cycle (pulse dosing) and ii) another with continuous PAC dosing. No pressure increase was observed during the filtration cycles and high removals of the target PhCs were observed, with 58-89% for the continuous dosing of 50 mg/L PAC. The results were successfully used in the design and operation of the PAC/NF pilot for the technology demonstration in El Prat WWTP (Spain).

City resilience reflects the overall capacity of a city (individuals, communities, institutions,businesses and systems) to survive, adapt and thrive no matter what kinds of chronicstresses or acute shocks they experience [1]. This capacity may be acquired throughadopting structural and non-structural solutions and/or introducing knowledge andintelligence in the management of cities infrastructures.In recent years, society has become increasingly aware of the risks that climate changeposes to cities. Climate change is likely to result in sea level rise, irregularity in rainfallfrequency and intensity, droughts and heat waves, which calls for a rapid but alsoinformed, sustainable and cohesive response from several stakeholders. In fact, thegrowing diversity of hazards, increasing complexity of cities, and uncertainty associatedwith climate change, globalisation and rapid urbanisation have contributed to introduceurban resilience into a critical agenda [2] and reinforced and it is necessary to make citiesand human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable [3].Furthermore, there is a need for models and tools that analyse urban resilience basedon a multisectoral approach, considering service interdependences and cascadingeffects, in order to increase city

Está em curso uma transformação no papel desempenhado pelas estações de tratamento de águas residuais, no sentido de incluir objetivos como a redução da emissão de gases com efeito de estufa e a promoção da recuperação de nutrientes, para além das tarefas fundamentais de proteção da saúde pública e de proteção da qualidade da água. As normas europeias fornecem especificações para produtos, materiais, serviços e processos, no sentido de assegurar qualidade, segurança e eficiência. Podem assim apoiar processos de evolução tecnológica, como o que se assiste no sector da água, funcionando como um repositório de boas práticas. Nesta comunicação é feita uma apresentação da norma europeia EN 12255 “Estações de tratamento de águas residuais”, cujo processo de revisão sistemática visa, entre outros objetivos, incorporar no texto normativo questões relacionadas com a promoção da eficiência energética e a recuperação de nutrientes, aspetos essenciais para uma maior sustentabilidade do sector da água.

Pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) are concerning the regulators and the general public because very little is known about their long-term and synergistic health-environmental effects. As some of these compounds are resistant to conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) though prone to adsorption, the addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC) emerges as a low capital cost and efficient complementary barrier against PhCs in the treated water. This paper reports the potential application of a newly developed waste-derived PAC for PhC removal in conventional activated sludge WWTPs, during the secondary treatment. The results obtained show that a dose of 6 mg/L of PAC will assure > 80% removal of the three PhCs tested (diclofenac, carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole).

Ao longo das últimas duas décadas, a avaliação de desempenho com base em indicadores de desempenho (ID) tem sido uma das áreas onde se tem registado um grande progresso no setor da água. Esta prática possibilita a medição da eficiência e/ou eficácia de uma atividade ou processo usando ID, apoiando o processo de tomada de decisão e incentivando a melho-ria contínua de uma entidade gestora. Apesar dos potenciais benefícios, poucos têm sido os projetos e iniciativas de avaliação de desempenho com base em ID que são desenvolvidos especificamente para sistemas de águas pluviais. O presente artigo tem como objetivos reunir trabalhos que tenham sido realizados nesta área, com propostas de metodologias de avalia-ção de desempenho com base em ID, discutir a aplicabilidade de tais metodologias e as suas lacunas, assim como apresentar trabalho em desenvolvimento e futuro. Com esta revisão, verificou-se que grande parte dos trabalhos é de âmbito limitado, focando-se num só tipo de sistemas de águas pluviais ou em só alguns aspetos do seu desempenho, além de se verifi-car que em alguns casos há diferentes definições do conceito de ID, comprometendo a sua aplicação em trabalhos posteriores. As lacunas identificadas enfatizam a necessidade de se desenvolver uma metodologia que possa estabelecer-se como uma referência para sistemas de águas pluviais. A metodologia de avaliação de desempenho a desenvolver deverá ser objetiva, padronizada e flexível na adaptação a diferentes sistemas e contextos, orientada por objetivos e critérios de avaliação, recorrendo a métricas, como ID, e classificado com base em valores de referência, e seguindo as melhores práticas e recomendações da área.

O aproveitamento de águas pluviais em usos urbanos diversos tem vindo a ser progressivamente valorizada como resultado de crescente necessidade de conservação da água e da procura de soluções mais sustentáveis na utilização de recursos. Esta prática apresenta diversos benefícios ambientais e económicos, designadamente, evitando a utilização de água para consumo humano em usos não potáveis e reduzindo a produção de escoamentos superficiais. Apesar do consenso existente em termos do reconhecimento do valor associado ao aproveitamento de águas pluviais, diversas barreiras têm limitado a generalização da sua aplicação. A normalização técnica pode desempenhar um papel importante na eliminação de barreiras técnicas à circulação e comércio de produtos e serviços, através da uniformização de procedimentos e critérios. Neste sentido, foi recentemente desenvolvida a norma europeia EN 16941-1:2018 “Sistemas de água não potável no local – Parte 1: Sistemas de aproveitamento de águas pluviais em edifícios”. A presente comunicação apresenta esta norma, focando aspetos gerais de interesse que possam promover a sua utilização por parte do meio técnico nacional.

Rainwater harvesting is being gradually valued as a result of the increased need for water conservation and the search for more sustainable solutions in the use of resources. This practice has several environmental and economic benefits, namely avoiding the use of drinking water in non-potable uses and reducing the production of stormwater runoff. Despite the existing consensus regarding the acknowledgment of the value associated with the use of rainwater, several barriers have limited the generalization of its application. Technical standardization can play an important role in eliminating technical barriers to the circulation and trade of products and services by unifying procedures and criteria. Standardization is a framework of agreements aiming that the processes associated with the creation of a product or the performance of a service are accomplished within a set of guidelines. Its goal is to voluntary define the level of quality safety that should be recognized and approved in a given field. The European standard EN 16941-1:2018 ""On-site non-potable water systems - Part 1: Systems for the use of rainwater"", published in January 2018, can help to build confidence in the quality and safety of rainwater harvesting. This standard specifies the requirements and gives recommendations for the design, sizing, installation, identification, commissioning and maintenance of rainwater harvesting systems for the use of rainwater on-site as non-potable water. The rainwater harvesting systems are described through four main functional elements: collection, treatment, storage, and distribution. This communication presents the EN 16941-1:2018, focusing on general aspects of interest that may promote its use.

Efficient management of complex combined sewer systems requires real-time command and control over the complete water cycle, from the upstream catchment to the receiving waters, including the urban dimension. However, the ability to jointly manage all relevant domains in an entire urban wastewater and stormwater system is often limited by 1) the lack of reliable information across the several relevant compartments, measured or predicted at the adequate time scales, and 2) the lack of comprehensive yet agile decision support tools that cover and predict all relevant controlling processes, from the water dynamics to the water quality descriptor fields. An integrated, smart approach for multi-scale management of urban stormwater and wastewater systems is described here to address this challenge, combining competences in urban hydraulic and water quality engineering, estuarine and coastal regions hydrodynamic and water quality engineering and computer science. This conceptual approach relies on a decision support system (DSS) that combines on-line monitoring with real-time forecasts, allowing for the continuous surveillance from the drainage system to the receiving water bodies and the anticipation of flooding and contamination events. A smart DSS was developed, based on SIEMENS

The Technical Guide presents the 4th generation of the service quality assessment system, which abandons some 3rd generation indicators and adds new ones to respond to the latest challenges to supply services, urban waste water management and urban waste management. Changes are also made to definitions and benchmarks for some indicators are adjusted.

O projeto Avaler+

These technical guidelines provides guidance on the use of the hybrid process of powdered activate carbon adsorption and ceramic microfiltration for sustainable drinking water production. They were developed based on the field demonstration of the technology, in Portugal, with a pilot prototype, within the LIFE Hymenb project LIFE12 ENV/PT/001154 "Tailoring hybrid membrane processes for sustainable drinking water production", conducted by LNEC - the National Civil Engineering Laboratory and Águas do Algarve, S.A.

O objetivo do presente Guia é a apresentação e a especificação dosistema correspondente à 2.ª geração de avaliação da qualidade dosserviços de abastecimento de água, de saneamento de águas residuaisurbanas e de gestão de resíduos urbanos prestados pelas entidadesgestoras sujeitas a regulação.Este sistema constitui uma peça fundamental do modelo de regulaçãoem implementação pela ERSAR, sumariamente descrito neste Guia emais detalhadamente descrito em [1], nomeadamente no que respeitaà componente da regulação da qualidade do serviço, de forma a tornarpossível a avaliação quantificada.Note-se que, de acordo com o disposto na alínea e) do n.º 1 do artigo 5.ºdo Decreto-Lei n.º 277/2009, de 2 de outubro, a ERSAR tem atribuiçõesnão apenas para assegurar a regulação da qualidade de serviço prestadoaos utilizadores pelas entidades gestoras, mas também para avaliaro desempenho dessas entidades, promovendo a melhoria dos níveis deserviço. É no quadro destas atribuições que se pretende promover estesistema de avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de águas e resíduos.A 2.ª geração do sistema de avaliação da qualidade do serviço resultouda análise crítica do sistema de indicadores adotado na 1.ª geração e darespetiva aplicação desde 2004 ao universo das entidades concessionáriase teve em conta o estado atual de conhecimentos e a experiênciainternacional entretanto adquirida.Para além da identificação e da especificação de todos os componentesdo sistema de avaliação, e em particular do conjunto de indicadores dequalidade do serviço a utilizar em cada um dos três tipos de serviços,são também definidos os procedimentos de avaliação, através dadefinição da informação a obter, do cálculo de indicadores, da sua interpretaçãoe análise comparativa, numa perspetiva de benchmarking, eda produção do relatório de síntese.

N/A

O objectivo do presente Guia é a apresentação e a especificação do sistema correspondente à 2.ª geração de avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de abastecimento de água, de saneamento de águas residuais urbanas e de gestão de resíduos urbanos prestados pelas entidades gestoras sujeitas a regulação. Este sistema constitui uma peça fundamental do modelo de regulação em implementação pela ERSAR, sumariamente descrito neste Guia e mais detalhadamente descrito em [1], nomeadamente no que respeita à componente da regulação da qualidade do serviço, de forma a tornar possível a avaliação quantificada. Note-se que, de acordo com o disposto nas alíneas e) do artigo 5.º do Decreto-Lei n.º 277/2009, de 2 de Outubro, a ERSAR tem atribuições não apenas para assegurar a regulação da qualidade de serviço prestado aos utilizadores pelas entidades gestoras bem como para avaliar o desempenho dessas entidades, promovendo a melhoria dos níveis de serviço. É no quadro destas atribuições que se pretende promover este sistema de avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de águas e resíduos. A 2.ª geração do sistema de avaliação da qualidade do serviço resultou da análise crítica do sistema de indicadores adoptado na 1.ª geração e da respectiva aplicação desde 2004 ao universo das entidades concessionárias e teve em conta o estado actual de conhecimentos e a experiência internacional entretanto adquirida. Para além da identificação e da especificação de todos os componentes do sistema de avaliação, e em particular do conjunto de indicadores de qualidade do serviço a utilizar em cada um dos três tipos de serviços, são também definidos os procedimentos de avaliação, através da definição da informação a obter, do cálculo de indicadores, da sua interpretação e análise comparativa, numa perspectiva de benchmarking, e da produção do relatório de síntese.

Invited papers from the IWA Leading Edge Conference on Strategic Asset Management (LESAM), Lisbon, October 2007

A simulação matemática dos sistemas de abastecimento de água é hoje em dia uma ferramenta indispensável aos serviços de água, para apoio a uma gestão técnica racional. O campo de aplicação é variado, sendo um auxiliar das actividades de planeamento, de projecto, de operação e demanutenção. Destacam-se o apoio ao dimensionamento de novas redes, aos programas de reabilitação, ao licenciamento de novas ligações, ao controlo de perdas de água, ao controlo da qualidade da água nas redes ou à gestão optimizada de energia.Em Portugal, o desenvolvimento e a aplicação de modelos matemáticos de sistemas de distribuição de água iniciou-se na década de 80, com o modelo da rede de Almada, elaborado em 1981 pelo LNEC. Depois dealguns anos em que a actividade realizada se centrou essencialmente no ambiente científico e académico, as empresas de consultoria começaram a ganhar espaço de mercado na prestação deste tipo de serviços para as entidades gestoras. Numa fase inicial os requisitos computacionais eramconsideráveis

Asset management (AM) has become increasingly important in various sectors and organizations over the lastfew decades. This introductory chapter provides an overview of asset management to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of AM, summarizing its application to urban drainage asset management (UDAM), an asset-intensive sector. The chapter includes a short history, from general AM to UDAM, and refers to milestones, key organizations, and standards. It describes AM principles and different perspectives to approach the subject. The UDAM context is outlined, providing the general processes which can influence strategic, tactical, or operational decision levels, accounting for the specific perspectives and objectives on the subject. The main approaches applied to UDAM are broadly described, some of which incorporate a balance of costs, risks, opportunities, and performance, while others focus on specific aspects. The chapter presents different types of approaches to AM, ranging from those based on condition, reliability, and risk to those based on value, followed by those based on performance or quality of service, highlighting common aspects or overlaps between them. When appropriate, guidance to the chapters where additional information on the subject can be found is provided. Finally, challenges, limitations and opportunities are highlighted.

The number of climate-related disasters has progressively increased in the last two decades and this trend will drastically exacerbate in the medium- and long-term horizons according to climate change projections. In this framework, through a multi-disciplinary team and a strong background acquired in recent projects, ICARIA aims to promote the use of asset-level modeling to achieve a better understanding of climate related tangible direct and indirect impacts on critical assets due to complex, cascading, and compound disasters. Furthermore, it takes into account the related risk reduction provided by suitable, sustainable, and cost-effective adaptation solutions. ICARIA focuses on both (i) critical assets and services that were not designed for potential climate change-related impacts that can increase the unplanned outages and failures, and (ii) on housing, natural areas, and population. Cutting edge methods regarding climate scenario building, asset-level-coupled models, and multi-risk assessment approaches will be implemented and replicated in three EU regions to understand how future climate scenarios might affect critical assets and to provide decision-making support tools to private and public risk owners to assess the costs and benefits of various adaptation solutions.

Activated carbons are versatile adsorbents that can play a crucial role in the enhancement of wastewater treatment, namely by controlling organic microcontaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and organic matter. These materials have a 100-year market availability, large scientific testing at lab-scale and applicability in consolidated technologies. However, the use of activated carbons at full-scale wastewater treatment is still emerging, driven by the increasing awareness on environmental and human threats mainly resulting from CECs. The present chapter reviews the literature on the application of activated carbons in full- or large pilot-scale plants, highlighting the state-of-art knowledge on practical issues on operational set-ups, improvements on water overall quality, and costs. The selection criteria and properties of the powdered and granular (PAC and GAC) materials used, and the pros and critical aspects of their application, relevant for product development and process optimisation, are also analysed and determine the research needs proposed for a technical, economic, and environmentally sustainable application of activated carbon in full-scale advanced wastewater treatment.

Urban areas are dynamic, complex, and vulnerable systems involving multiple strategic services such as water supply, wastewater, and stormwater and waste management. Climate-change trends may directly affect the urban water cycle, through heavy rainfall, tides, and droughts, potentially causing cascading impacts with serious consequences for people, the natural and built environments, and the economy. These challenges to urban areas require an integrated and sustainable approach to increase their resilience, with the allocation of the needed resources, including the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies, plans, and regulations in all relevant sectors. This chapter describes a resilience-assessment framework to be used by cities and urban-service managers. It considers a structured and objective-driven assessment aiming at supporting the development and monitoring of cities' and urban services' resilience action plans, thus contributing to appropriate DRR investments. Our approach considers four resilience dimensions: organizational, spatial, functional, and physical. It is aligned with the UNDRR's Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities and addresses the priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. In this chapter, we apply the resilience-assessment framework to the waste and mobility sectors in Lisbon (Portugal), identifying main opportunities to enhance their resilience and supporting the development of resilience and DRR strategies.

Atualmente os sistemas urbanos de água são reconhecidos como infraestruturas in­dispensáveis de suporte para a prestação de serviços públicos de primeira necessida­de à saúde e bem-estar das populações e à economia das sociedades

Urban areas are dynamic, complex, and vulnerable systems involving multiple strategic urban services, stakeholders, and citizens. Strategic services essential to society include water and sewerage (water supply, and wastewater and stormwater management), waste management, energy supply, public lighting, transport, and public security. The potential effects of climate dynamics on the urban areas might lead to the aggravation of existing fragile conditions and the emergence of new hazards or risk factors, with major impacts on strategic urban services, people, the natural and built environment, and the economy. Climate change challenges to urban areas thus require an integrated and sustainable approach to increase their resilience, with the allocation of the needed resources at all administrative levels. These include the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies, policies, plans, laws, and regulations in all relevant sectors (UNISDR, 2015). This chapter describes a resilience assessment framework to be used by cities and urban-service managers. The framework considers a structured and objective-driven assessment aiming at supporting the development and monitoring of cities

This chapter briefly presents concepts and methodologies to support the management of urban drainage infrastructure. After the introduction, data requirements for assessing the condition of urban drainage systems are presented. Data can be collected in different ways. Data analysis allows for determining structural and functional issues and system performance. The causes and consequences of failures are required for condition assessment and are the subject of the risk section. Any intervention in the urban drainage system has a cost that must be assessed. Mathematical modelling of the urban drainage systems has an advantage for evaluating the hydraulic and structural performance. Decisions on the management of urban drainage rehabilitation need to be addressed considering the different points of view or aspects that are often contradictory. This may be addressed by using multi-criteria decision analysis methodologies.

Urban water services make use of extensive networked infrastructures - water supply and drainage systems. Efficient management of these services relies on the quality of measurements of hydraulic variables in pipes and sewers to support robust analysis of systems

Urban water services make use of extensive networked infrastructures

Rainwater harvesting systems (RWHS) can result in important benefits, but there are a number of potential negative risks. The risks associated with RWHS depend on several factors and duly consideration is required to ensure that risks associated with this type of solutions are low. Therefore, a generic and systematic approach to manage risk is required. This chapter introduces a brief overview of concepts and terminology adopted. Subsequently, an overview of common approaches to risk management is presented. The chapter focuses on specific aspects for the application of these approaches to RWHS, with emphasis on risk identification, specific risk treatment action, and monitoring. Different approaches on how to determine risks such as water safety plan (WSP), risk management process (RMP), and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) can be used, but all of them have some common steps.

This research aims at developing a comprehensive approach for assessing the energy use and efficiency in wastewater systems, considering the water-energy-greenhouse gas (W-E-G) emissions nexus supported by methods and tools, such as a tailored energy balance and a performance assessment system (PAS). This approach is aligned with continuous improvement principles and allows carrying out the diagnosis of energy efficiency in wastewater systems supporting the building of a portfolio of energy use improvement measures responding to strategic objectives and attending to the systems

Drinking water storage tanks are essential components of water supply systems to store water, to level off pressure in networks and to meet emergency storage. They are also frequent sources of deterioration of drinking water quality and safety owing to inadequate tank design and operation. Mostly, existing tanks design, dimensions and operation do not account for water mixing and renewal.

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are crucial to achieving the goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and other global agendas, such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In the last decade, the NBS umbrella concept has become more relevant intending to contribute to urban resilience and to address the climate change challenges. NBS are living solutions inspired by nature that use or mimic natural processes intending to face several societal challenges, from the perspective of resource-efficient use and the promotion of economic and environmental benefits. Currently, cities are encouraged to understand and measure the NBS contribution to identify adequate strategies for enhancing resilience and prioritize investments accordingly. The objective of the present thesis is to promote and enhance the NBS implementation in cities, focused on solutions for stormwater management and control. Based on the analysis of their contribution to urban resilience, the potential to meet environmental, social, and economic challenges and to adapt across diverse urban scales and contexts is demonstrated. In this sense, a Resilience Assessment Framework (RAF) to assess the NBS contribution to urban resilience was developed. This framework aims to assess the NBS contribution to urban resilience. Moreover, a Guidance for the RAF application in cities with different resilience maturity was developed, which involved the RAF validation by seven cities (from a national and international context), that participated voluntarily in this phase. In this context, the developed RAF is comprehensive and multidimensional. It is driven by the definition of objectives, criteria, and metrics, according to the proposed structure for assessing the water supply and wastewater system service performance in the framework of the ISO 24500 standards of the International Organization for Standardization. For an oriented assessment of the criteria, qualitative and quantitative metrics were defined, considering data from different sources and complexity. Reference values were also identified and metrics' classifications were defined. In this classification, each answer is associated with a resilience development level, intending to assess the NBS contribution to urban resilience on a normalized scale. To support the RAF application to cities with different resilience maturity (in terms of resilience and available information), three analysis degrees (essential, complementary, and comprehensive) and a set of metrics were proposed, which are pre-defined in the guidance for the RAF application. To support the selection of the analysis degree more adequate to any city, a structure to characterize the city's profile was developed. This complementary profile also supports the interpretation of the RAF results, both at the city and at the level of specific NBS. To conclude, the application of the RAF essential analysis degree to the seven participating cities, with different challenges regarding urban resilience and NBS, and of the comprehensive analysis degree (complete RAF) to Porto´s urban area, through an assemble assessment at the city and NBS levels, were presented.

Over the past two decades, performance assessment (PA) has been one of the areas show-ing the greatest advancement in the water sector. PA aims to measure effectiveness and/or efficiency of an activity or process using performance metrics, supporting the decision-making process and the continuous improvement of water utilities. Despite the potential benefits, few projects, and initiatives on PA have been undertaken regarding storm water systems (SWS). The present thesis aims to develop a performance assessment framework (PAF), applicable to both conventional SWS and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), objective driven and focused on systems

Infrastructure asset management (IAM) has been increasingly becoming a key topic in the mind-set shift of the water sector managers and policy makers, allowing to assist in the operational, tactical and strategic decision-making in urban water infrastructures. Nevertheless, IAM implementation by the water utilities is still far from needed and not widespread, due to several challenges and constraints, mainly associated with limited human, technological and financial resources. The current research aims at enhancing urban water infrastructure asset management through an integrated decision-making approach, that includes novel methodologies for condition assessment, service life prediction and cost modelling. This approach can be applied at three assessment levels

Este trabalho tem como objetivo melhorar a eficiência energética dos sistemas de abastecimento de água através do desenvolvimento de uma metodologia orientada por objetivos e com recurso ao balanço energético e a métricas de desempenho que permitem identificar as principais origens de ineficiência energética dos sistemas, comparar diferentes alternativas de intervenção e contribuir para a melhoria contínua destes sistemas.A metodologia de investigação seguida contempla desenvolvimentos científicos aliados a uma aplicação prática num conjunto alargado de casos de estudo através de ferramentas de cálculo automático desenvolvidas para o efeito. Os desenvolvimentos científicos consistem na formulação matemática de um balanço energético flexível em termos de dados necessários para a sua implementação; o desenvolvimento de métricas de desempenho que permitem identificar a origem das ineficiências energéticas (equipamentos, perdas de água ou configuração e operação) e a sua sistematização numa metodologia que segue os princípios de melhoria contínua (Plan-Do-Check-Act). A aplicação a casos de estudo é efetuada em três etapas. A primeira etapa consiste na aplicação do balanço energético agregado e métricas de desempenho para diagnosticar ineficiências a nível global em sistemas sem modelo matemático. A segunda etapa consiste na aplicação de um balanço detalhado com recurso a modelos matemáticos, bem como uma análise de sensibilidade aos diferentes métodos. A terceira etapa centra-se na aplicação detalhada de dois casos de estudo para ilustrar a metodologia.Os principais resultados são: i) uma metodologia integrada para o diagnóstico água-energia em sistemas de abastecimento de água; ii) um novo balanço energético para sistemas de abastecimento de água; iii) resultados da aplicação do balanço e das métricas de eficiência energética em 110 sistemas; iv) ferramentas para cálculo das diferentes formulações de balanço energético e de métricas de desempenho; e v) valores reais e exemplos de soluções não convencionais que conduziram a melhorias de desempenho energético.

As estações de tratamento de águas residuais (ETAR) são atualmente alvo de esforços de melhoria do seu desempenho técnico, ambiental e económico. Empresas, reguladores e organismos de financiamento têm utilizado sistemas de avaliação de desempenho para apoiar as suas decisões. Neste contexto, o LNEC desenvolveu a 1.ª e 2.ª geração do sistema de avaliação de desempenho (PAS) de ETAR baseado em indicadores (PIs) e índices de desempenho (PXs). Para ambos, os valores de referência para o julgamento do desempenho são elementos chave. Apesar de serem elementos cruciais, os valores de referência precisavam ainda de ser definidos para avaliar e melhorar o desempenho das ETAR com foco na eficiência energética e gestão de afluências pluviais. Assim, o objetivo da tese foi desenvolver a terceira geração do PAS com valores de referência para avaliar o desempenho. Os PIs e PXs focam os objetivos principais da ETAR, ou seja, garantir a sustentabilidade técnica, econômica e ambiental, garantindo um tratamento eficaz e fiável com o consumo mínimo de energia, reagentes e produção de lamas. A estratégia seguida consistiu em desenvolver ou selecionar a partir da segunda geração do PAS sub-conjuntos de PIs e PXs de acordo com os objetivos, nomeadamente, eficácia, fiabilidade, desempenho energético e consumo de reagentes e gestão das lamas. Os valores de referência foram derivados com base numa revisão da literatura, equações empíricas e/ou estudos de campo e, sempre que aplicável, incorporam o efeito de parâmetros chave, de modo a avaliar o efeito das variações de caudal e de concentração. Foi desenvolvida uma análise estatística dos PXs para avaliar a fiabilidade da ETAR. Foi também demonstrada a flexibilidade do sistema de avaliação de desempenho para diferentes objetivos e uma abordagem para diagnosticar oportunidades de melhoria do desempenho, utilizando os PIs e PXs num ciclo PDCA (plan-do-check-act).

Este trabalho de investigação teve como objectivo principal propor, aplicar e validar uma metodologia que permitisse transformar dados de consumo urbano de água, obtidos a partir de sistemas de telemetria, em informação útil para a gestão dos serviços de água e para os consumidores.A metodologia encontra-se estruturada em quatro módulos: planeamento e monitorização,processamento de dados, produção de informação de caracterização e previsão eclassificação. Tirando partido de dados de consumo telemedidos aos vários níveis, desde o cliente individual às zonas de medição e controlo (ZMC), procede-se à aplicação dametodologia para caracterização de grandes consumidores, previsão do consumodoméstico nocturno, avaliação do efeito da variação de pressão no consumo autorizado enas perdas de água e previsão do consumo em ZMC.Para além da metodologia estruturada para a análise de consumos, as principaiscontribuições inovadoras são o desenvolvimento de modelos de previsão e de classificação do consumo em ZMC, em função das variáveis explicativas mais significativas, e a obtenção de expressões para a variação do consumo autorizado e das perdas reais com a pressão.O trabalho desenvolvido contribuirá para um uso mais eficiente da água, através de ummelhor conhecimento sobre as várias componentes do consumo urbano de água, assimcomo para o estabelecimento de critérios de projecto e de exploração da rede maissustentados.

Os serviços de abastecimento de água (SAA) têm vindo a incorporar princípios desustentabilidade na sua prática de gestão. O estado da arte em metodologias de avaliação dedesempenho de SAA mostrou a necessidade de abordar especificamente o tratamento,considerado insatisfatoriamente nas abordagens sistematizadas existentes.Na presente dissertação desenvolveu-se um sistema de avaliação de desempenho (PAS) deestações de tratamento de água (ETA), orientado por objectivos, normalizado e quantitativo,destinado a apoiar a tomada de decisão, e cobrindo os domínios qualidade da água tratada,eficiência/fiabilidade, utilização de água, energia e materiais, gestão de subprodutos, segurança,recursos humanos e económico financeiros.O PAS integra uma componente para avaliação do desempenho global, baseada em indicadoresde desempenho, e uma componente para avaliação do desempenho operacional, baseada emíndices de desempenho que avaliam, numa escala 0-300, a qualidade da água tratada, eficiênciasdas várias operações/processos unitários (OPU) e sua relação com condições de operação.Foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta de cálculo automático do PAS.A aplicação do PAS a cinco ETA de características diversas permitiu avaliar a evoluçãotemporal do seu desempenho, comparar estações e OPU, e identificar oportunidades de melhoriana operação das OPU, na qualidade da água tratada e utilização de recursos.

This report documents the final release of the water cycle modelling and assessment solutions toolkit, which is comprised of the following ten tools: the water reuse strategic platform (#16), the environment for decision support and alternative course selection (#17), Re-Actor (#18), the sludge management platform (#19), the UWC observatory (#20), the stormwater reuse management system (#21), the Nessie System (#29), the Environmental Dashboard (#30), the Digital Enabler (#32) and the climate-readiness certification tool (#33) . It includes the following aspects: tool description, attributes and information around pre-existing background, developments and advancements within the project, navigation and primary functionalities, interoperability, indicative applications and synergistic benefits and how to access each tool and test data. It presents the use of the tools in the LLs by explaining the tools' integrative use, conceptual links, data flows and pilot interactions.

This report documents the final release of the water cycle modelling and assessment solutions toolkit, which is comprised of the following eight tools: UWOT #22, regional demand-supply matching GIS tool #23, reclaimed water distribution network water quality model #24, water-energy-phosphorous balance planning module #25, QMRA+ #26, risk assessment for urban water reuse module #27, short-term demand forecasting tool #28 and SuTRa #31 and complements the other toolkit. It includes the following aspects: tool description, attributes and information around pre-existing background, developments and advancements within the project, navigation and primary functionalities, interoperability, indicative applications and synergistic benefits and how to access each tool and test data. It presents the use of the tools in the LLs by explaining the tools' integrative use, conceptual links, data flows and pilot interactions.

This report offers a preliminary overview of the main drivers and barriers related to the policy and governance dimensions across the six Living Labs of B-WaterSmart: Alicante (Spain), Bodø (Norway), East Frisia (Germany), Flanders (Belgium), Lisbon (Portugal) and Venice (Italy). It provides an overview of the policy framework with implications for water management in the European Union, including the main plans and strategies related to adaptation to climate change and implementation of a circular economy, along the nexus water-energy-resources-waste. Furthermore, we added a section that describes succinctly the main models of water governance in Europe.

The main objective of the EMPOWER+ project is to develop new high-performing GACs and PACs and reusable magnetic powdered activated carbons (MPACs), prepared by steam and CO2 activation of pine nut shells (PNS/Steam and PNS/CO2 activated carbons) following the protocol developed for PACs under the framework of LIFE Impetus project.

MS16 consists of the first, preliminary version, V0, of the B-WaterSmart Assessment Framework (BWS AF) developed by WP6 in Task 6.2. The MS16 is composed of an excel file and this document. The excel file provides the list of elements forming the framework: the strategic objectives, the assessment criteria and the metrics proposed. This document, after background information about the BWS AF use, scope and development phases, describes the structure and the elements listed in the excel file. All the information provided by MS16 will be embedded into a web-application by end of April 2022, so to facilitate the validation phase carried out by the InAll, during the period April-August 2022.The planning of the period to release the web-application has been agreed with Task 1.4 and it is aligned with the activities planned within the InAll. Given the continuous work on refinement of metrics planned in collaboration with the InAll, the web-application, as well as this MS16, will be kept as living files for updating as and when required until the V2 of the BWS AF will be finalized.

Este trabalho envolve dois aspetos diferenciadores face a estudos anteriores: Diagnóstico aprofundado do subsistema D.S5-EEA3, quer espacial quer temporalmente, recorrendo à modelação hidráulica, aos cenários de operação de inverno e verão e cobrindo aspetos como a pressão, velocidade e idade da água na situação de referência e futura.Especificação e análise comparativa de alternativas (desempenho, custos, benefícios) para a sua priorização atendendo ao seu impacto a médio e longo-prazo (e.g., 10 anos e 20 anos).O diagnóstico aprofundado e a priorização de alternativas atenderão à evolução futura do sistema mediante cenários que serão identificados em conjunto com a EG, designadamente, alteração nos padrões de uso da água potável em usos não potáveis, com redução do seu uso para, por exemplo, rega de espaços públicos verdes, lavagem de ruas, climatização e alterações de contexto interno (e.g., expansão da rede do subsistema D.S5-EEA3). Este relatório visa apresentar a metodologia e o sistema de avaliação para diagnóstico aprofundado de subsistemas.

One of the key objectives of B-WaterSmart is to deliver a water-smartness assessment framework (BWS AF) fully tested in the six living labs (LLs) of the project. This deliverable aims at providing first recommendations to support both the refinement of the BWS AF and the development of the corresponding dashboard. This deliverable describes (i) the approach followed to obtain the recommendations within the innovation alliance (InAll), the InAll process (Task 1.4), and an overview of the testing process of BWS AF version V0 (delivered by WP6). It further presents (ii) the feedback on the framework from the LL problem-owners (LLi) (with support from WP6 for feedback collection and processing of raw results), the respective analysis, and subsequent recommendations both for refinement of the framework, and the development of the dashboard-type software to facilitate its use.

D6.2 consists of the Version 1 of the B-WaterSmart Assessment Framework (BWS AF) developed by WP6 under Task 6.2. V1 builds on the V0 (MS16), which provided the preliminary list of the elements forming the framework. MS16 built on the theoretical background given by D6.1, describing the preliminary conceptual design of the framework. V1 is a transitional step between V0 and the final version V2 (by Task 6.3). To deliver V1, first the information provided by MS16 have been embedded into a web-application, to facilitate a validation phase carried out by the Innovation Alliance (InAll) under the coordination of Task 1.4 in the period April-August 2022. Afterwards, the InAll have been trained to the use of the web application and, by using the feedback forms made available, their insights have been shared with Task 6.2. The feedback has been analyzed by Task 6.2 in September and either already addressed in V1 or included in this document as input to Task 6.3. D6.2 is composed therefore by this supporting document and the web-application incorporating the updated version of the BWS-AF allowing further testing by the InAll. This document consists of two parts: part I includes background information about the BWS AF scope, the description of the co-creation process established with the InAll, and the updated version of the elements forming the framework V1 (incorporated in the web-application), as well as the aggregated analysis of the feedbacks provided by the InAll. Part II addresses Task 3.9, which will convert the BWS AF V2 into a dashboard, by sharing insights based on the experience gained during the development of the web-application and the validation phase. Last, D6.2 is closely related with D1.3 describing the scope and process of validation of V0 and also providing insights to Task 6.3 and Task 3.9 from the InAll perspective.

O projeto AGIR

O projeto AGIR

EXCLUSIVO: AWARE-P vence prémio alemão e conquista novo reconhecimento internacional: É a primeira vez que é distinguido um projecto de um país que não fala alemão, entrevista de Ana Santiago (Jornalista do Jornal Água & Ambiente - Portal Ambiente Online) a Helena Alegre, 19 de Agosto de 2014

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