Publicações

High quality services of wastewater treatment require a continuous assessment and improvement of the technical, environmental and economic performance. This paper demonstrates a comprehensive approach for benchmarking wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), using performance indicators (PIs) and indices (PXs), in a

The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive approach for spatial and temporal demand profiling in water distribution systems. Multiple linear regression models for estimating network design parameters and decision trees for predicting daily demand patterns are presented. Proposed approach is a four-step procedure: data collection, data processing, data characterization, and spatial and temporal demand profiling. Continuous flow measurements and infrastructure and billing data were collected from a large set of water network areas and combined with census data. Main results indicate that family structures (i.e., families with elderly or adolescents), individuals

Many national and regional administrations are currently facing challenges to ensure long-term sustainability of urban water services, as infrastructures continue to accumulate alarming levels of deferred maintenance and rehabilitation. The infrastructure value index (IVI) has proven to be an effective tool to support long-term planning, in particular by facilitating the ability to communicate and to create awareness. It is given by the ratio between current value of an infrastructure and its replacement cost. Current value is commonly estimated according to an asset-oriented approach, which is based on the concept of useful life of individual components. The standard values assumed for the useful lives can vary significantly, which leads to valuations that are just as different. Furthermore, with water companies increasingly focused on the customer, effective service-centric asset management is essential now more than ever. This paper shows results of on-going research work, which aims to explore a service-oriented approach for assessing the IVI. The paper presents the fundamentals underlying this approach, discusses and compares results obtained from both perspectives and points to challenges that still need to be addressed.

Chlorine decay modeling in drinking water transport and distribution systems is a major tool for the management of disinfectant concentration. For such purposes, the models to be used in water quality simulators must describe chlorine decay in the systems as accurately as possible, requiring a minimum number of parameters and still be sufficiently robust to predict chlorine residuals under changing operational conditions. In this paper, two second-order decay models (single reactant and two reactants) were examined for their ability to predict chlorine residuals in surface raw and treated waters at a range of initial chlorine and natural organic matter concentrations. The two reactants model is necessary for chlorine residuals prediction in raw waters. However, for treated waters it only performed marginally better than the simpler single reactant model, with half the number of parameters that needed to be estimated. In addition, correlations were observed between both models parameters for reactive natural organic matter (NOM) concentration and measured fluorescence and ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopic data associated with humic-like compounds. Such findings are likely to open the door for a more exact determination of the models

On line monitoring programs based on spectroscopy have a high application potential for the detection of hazardous wastewater discharges in sewer systems. Wastewater hydraulics poses a challenge for in situ spectroscopy, especially when the system includes storm water connections leading to rapid changes in water depth, velocity and in the water quality matrix. Thus, there is a need to optimize and fix the location of in situ instruments, limiting their availability for calibration. In this context, the development of calibration models on bench spectrophotometers, to estimate wastewater quality parameters from spectra acquired in in situ instruments, could be very useful. However, spectra contain information not only from the samples but also from the spectrophotometer, generally invalidating this approach. The use of calibration transfer methods is a promising solution to this problem. In this study, calibration models were developed using interval partial least squares (iPLS), for the estimation of total suspended solids (TSS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in sewage from ultraviolet-visible spectra acquired in a bench scanning spectrophotometer. The feasibility of calibration transfer to a submersible, diode array equipment, to be subsequently operated in situ, was assessed using three procedures: slope and bias correction (SBC); single wavelength standardization (SWS) on mean spectra; and local centering (LC). The results showed that SBC was the most adequate for the available data, adding insignificant error to the base model estimates. Single wavelength standardization was a close second best, potentially more robust, and independent of the base iPLS model. Local centering was shown to be inadequate for the samples and instruments used.

The purpose of this paper is to present a simple yet highly effective method to reconstruct missing data in flow time series. The presence of missing values in network flow data severely restricts their use for an adequate management of billing systems and for network operation. Despite significant technology improvements, missing values are frequent due to metering, data acquisition and storage issues. The proposed method is based on a weighted function for forecast and backcast obtained from existing time series models that accommodate multiple seasonality. A comprehensive set of tests were run to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new method and results indicated that a model for flow data reconstruction should incorporate daily and seasonal components for more accurate predictions, the window size used for forecast and backcast should range between 1 and 4 weeks, and the use of two disjoint training sets to generate flow predictions is more robust to detect anomalous events than other existing methods. Results obtained for flow data reconstruction provide evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The purpose of this paper is to present a simple yet highly effective method to reconstruct missing data in flow time series. The presence of missing values in network flow data severely restricts their use for an adequate management of billing systems and for network operation. Despite significant technology improvements, missing values are frequent due to metering, data acquisition and storage issues. The proposed method is based on a weighted function for forecast and backcast obtained from existing time series models that accommodate multiple seasonality. A comprehensive set of tests were run to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new method and results indicated that a model for flow data reconstruction should incorporate daily and seasonal components for more accurate predictions, the window size used for forecast and backcast should range between 1 and 4 weeks, and the use of two disjoint training sets to generate flow predictions is more robust to detect anomalous events than other existing methods. Results obtained for flow data reconstruction provide evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A decision support system (DSS) tool for the assessment of intervention strategies (Alternatives) in an urban water system (UWS) with an integral simulation model called

Advances in measurement and automation technologies enabled the deployment of monitoring systems with data acquisition at high frequency in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). The aim of this work is the design of soft sensors to predict hard-to-measure quality variables of wastewater required for mechanistic modeling of the biological treatment system in a real municipal WWTP. The input data collected in the WWTP using a flowmeter and spectro-photometric and electrochemical online probes, sampling campaigns and on-line analysis, was used for the development of soft sensors by multivariate analysis, like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression. Exploratory data analysis was performed in order to detect outliers, patterns and correlations. PLS models for soft sensors were developed using leave-one-out cross validation and the predictive capacity of independent data was evaluated by root mean square error (RMSE). The normalized RMSE obtained for organic nitrogen prediction were 19.5% and 18.1%, using sensors with analytical and spectral data, respectively. The possibility of using spectro-photometric probes providing measurements of a single wavelength was evalu-ated in order to reduce the online monitoring investment costs.

The constant expansion of urban areas ant its services has created new challenges to city managers. Climate Change (CC) is one of the most important topics, taking special importance in urban areas. Given its scalability, technology can take an important role to help city managers identify and mitigate specific CC-related problems in these areas. In this paper, a web application is presented to empower city managers with a tool that give them detailed data about their cities resilience to cope with CC, accessible from anywhere. The usage of this app allows city managers to take optimized measures to suppress weak areas of each city. This app is integrated as a service of the Portuguese Infrastructures Roadmap, under the Infraestrutura Nacional de Computação Distribuída (INCD) project INCD provides the resources for the apps’ data computation and storage, and assures its scalability to handle multiple user requests as well as database storage growth. This app uses a methodology of city assessment that goes deep into city services processes, identifying the specific areas that have higher vulnerability to CC hazards. The identification of these areas allows the city managers to implement incisive measures and to estimate costs of those measures improving the city resilience. Three case studies are being carried out in different cities (Barcelona, Lisbon and Bristol). Despite the complexity of the methodology of urban assessment, the RESCCUE RAF app can be accessed using a user-friendly interface that can be accessed from anywhere. The access requires authentication due to sensibility of information processed. After authentication, the user has access to a dedicated area where city information can be filled in, in an intuitive way such as: last review of City Master Plan, history of climate hazards or a detailed way of operation of city services. Then, taking advantage INCD infrastructure, this information is processed on-the-fly and several indicators are calculated. This information can then be explored within the app, at multiple levels, using intuitive and interactive chart and tabular information, from a macro view on overall city resilience to specific items like resilience of a specific process of a city service. These results can support targeted efforts and investments in the services that need to be improved. Given its importance and flexibility, the RESCCUE RAF App can be extended to other cities and take a major role in the urban resilience improvement to cope with climate change effects, contributing in the decision making process to avoid human, material and environmental losses.

Energy efficiency is inextricably linked to the sustainability of urban water services (UWS) since it corresponds to 30-40% of operational costs in drinking water and wastewater services. Energy costs are mainly associated with network pumping and aeration in wastewater treatment. A comprehensive framework for diagnosis of energy consumption and efficiency in water and wastewater systems involving four levels of analysis: overall UWS (level 1), each stage of the UWS (level 2), infrastructure component (level 3) (e.g., network distribution area, wastewater treatment facilities) and processes or equipment in each component (level 4) (e.g., pumping station, air mixing equipment). The assessment system proposed for the levels of analysis 2 and 3 and the approach for diagnosis and prioritization is explored in a water utility in this paper. It was demonstrated the potential of the framework to identify the different sources of inefficiencies and the impact in effectiveness and locate critical infrastructures for a more detailed analysis. This demonstrates the potential for applicability of the approach to other water utilities that participate in the Avaler+ project as well for general applicability.

A avaliação de desempenho é uma importante ferramenta de gestão no setor da água e a sua integração na gestão dos sistemas de águas pluviais (SAP) poderá constituir uma mais-valia para as entidades gestoras. Neste sentido, identificou-se a necessidade de desenvolver uma metodologia de avaliação de desempenho de SAP, que seja abrangente, objetiva, padronizada e flexível na sua aplicação. A metodologia apresentada é composta por objetivos, critérios de avaliação e indicadores de desempenho (ID), que constituem etapas de relevo na avaliação de desempenho. O objetivo do presente trabalho consistiu no desenvolvimento de um sistema de avaliação de desempenho a um caso de estudo, na bacia da Quinta do Borel, no concelho da Amadora. Os ID foram calculados a partir de dados obtidos em campanhas de inspeção e monitorização e de simulações hidráulicas de cenários climáticos e soluções de intervenção. As principais falhas de desempenho identificadas relacionam-se com a ocorrência de inundações, a existência de ligações indevidas de efluente doméstico ao SAP, a falta de capacidade hidráulica dos coletores em parte da rede pluvial e coletores sem capacidade de autolimpeza. Foram feitas recomendações de melhoria de desempenho e de obtenção de informação no caso de ID sem dados disponíveis e avaliou-se o potencial da metodologia proposta.

Urban areas are complex, vulnerable and continuously evolving, with interacting strategic services, assets and stakeholders. Potential effects of climate dynamics on urban areas may include the aggravation of current conditions, with identification of new hazards or risk drivers. These challenges require an integrated and forward-looking approach to sustainable urban development. Several tools and frameworks for assessing resilience have already been developed in different fields of study. However, aiming to focus on climate change, urban services and infrastructure, some specific needs were identified. In this light, a resilience assessment framework was developed to direct and facilitate an objective-driven resilience diagnosis of urban cities and services; to support decision on selection of resilience measures and development of strategies to enhance resilience to climate change; to outline a path to co-build Resilience Action Plans; and to track the progress of resilience in the city or in the service over time. The paper presents an outline of the structure of the framework and details the approach used in its development, including engagement tools and actions undertaken to assure stakeholder involvement in its development, validation and testing.

A resiliência emergiu como uma perspetiva atraente em relação às cidades, teorizadas como sistemas altamente complexos e adaptativos [1]. Um dos objetivos do desenvolvimento sustentável, propostos pela UNHABITAT, estabelece a resiliência nas cidades como uma questão crítica. A resiliência é usualmente entendida como a capacidade do sistema de absorver perturbações e reorganizar-se enquanto sofre mudanças. Este processo, de melhoria continua, visa essencialmente reter a mesma função, estrutura e identidade [2]. As soluções baseadas na natureza (Nature Based Solutions, NBS) surgiram como soluções sustentáveis para contribuir para a resiliência das cidades de forma a enfrentar os desafios das alterações climáticas. Alguns exemplos de NBS para controlo de caudais pluviais são bacias de retenção, coberturas verdes, zonas húmidas contruídas, valas com cobertura vegetal, entre outras. A União Europeia (UE) define NBS como ações que visam ajudar as sociedades face aos desafios ambientais, sociais e económicos de forma sustentável [3]. Esta comunicação visa apresentar a contribuição das NBS para a resiliência urbana, analisando os vários projetos e identificando as lacunas existentes. Também será desenvolvida uma análise dos sistemas de avaliação existentes e apresentada a estrutura preliminar de um sistema de avaliação do contributo das NBS para a resiliência urbana.

Nos serviços urbanos de água, os gastos com energia podem corresponder a 25-40% dos gastos operacionais das entidades gestoras destes sistemas. O projeto Avaler+ pretende avaliar e melhorar o desempenho energético dos sistemas de abastecimento de água (SAA) e dos sistemas de águas residuais e pluviais (SARP). A avaliação da situação de referência do consumo e eficiencia energética é determinante para previsão da sua evolução, estabelecimento de metas e avaliação do impacto das medidas de melhoria. Este artigo apresenta a metodologia e os resultados do consumo e eficiência energética setor urbano em Portugal, entre 2004 e 2017. Os dados analisados demonstram um aumento do consumo anual de energia no setor nos últimos 7 anos. Em 2017, o consumo total apurado foi de 1,1 TWh, 62% dos quais nos SAA e 38% nos SARP. Em SAA, o principal consumo de energia ocorreu no bombeamento para captação, transporte e distribuição de água (89% em média), que nos SARP representou, em média, 21%. O desempenho energético das instalações elevatórias tem sido insatisfatório ou mediano (mediana 0,55 a 0,61 kWh/m3/100m), com piores desempenhos no SARP (mediana 0,64 a 0,88 kWh/m3/100m). Os resultados evidenciam que existe um elevado potencial de melhoria de eficiência energética.

Este artigo aborda o estado atual sobre práticas de modelação da qualidade da águas residuais tratadas em sistemas de distribuição, identifica formulações de modelos de qualidade de água e apresenta a adaptação do modelo de substâncias reativas com cloro para simulação da qualidade das águas residuais tratadas, de sistemas reais, no software EPANET-MSX.

Novel powdered activated carbons were prepared using locally available biomass and were benchmarked against commercially available products for the adsorption of a short-list of representative pharmaceutical compounds spiked in synthetic inorganic matrix and in real wastewater from a wastewater treatment plant

Nesta comunicação compara-se a aplicação de PAC nos tratamentos secundário e terciário para controlo de fármacos, que são uma família de CIE. Através de modelação matemática, demonstra-se o papel-chave das condições de aplicação de PAC (local e concentração) na eficiência e nos custos do processo.

Clean water and sanitation is one of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) of the United Nations

O Guia Técnico n.º 27 concretiza a 4.ª geração do sistema de avaliação da qualidade dos serviços da ERSAR, sendo o resultado de um excelente exemplo de colaboração entre a ERSAR, enquanto entidade reguladora, o Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil e a Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a quem não podíamos deixar de agradecer, alargando este agradecimento ao universo das entidades gestoras reguladas, cujos contributos prestados durante a consulta ao setor foram integrados nesta versão final.

The European project LIFE IMPETUS demonstrated low-investment, low-energy, flexible, and easy to implement measures for improving the removal of pharmaceutical compounds in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with activated sludge (CAS) treatment, the most common biological process in those plants in Portugal and worldwide.The project addressed two major groups of technical solutions: i) operating strategies to enhance the biological treatment for PhC removal, measures identified using sound benchmarking tools, and ii) powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition to the biological reactor, using eco-friendly adsorbents, to control the recalcitrant PhCs and those with incomplete and variable biological removal. These technical guidelines compile the best practices and best lessons learned in LIFE IMPETUS project regarding PhC monitoring and improvement of PhC control in urban CAS-WWTPs using the approached technical solutions. The document aims at an easy and comprehensive use by water practitioners, water regulators, academia, and students of different backgrounds, answering to the questions of what, where, how, how much (cost), and when to monitor and control PhCs in urban CAS-WWTPs. Incentives for PhC control in urban WWTPs are also tackled.

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.

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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.

Os objetivos da nova DARU são ambiciosos, exigindo maior eficácia e eficiência

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

This paper aims to explain why and how innovative technologies are enablers of strategic asset management (SAM) of water supply, wastewater and storm water systems.

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

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 document reports the activity developed in FCT EMPOWER+ project (2021-2024) in which new high-performing granular activated carbons (GACs), powdered activated carbons (PACs) and reusable magnetic PACs (MPACs) prepared by steam and CO2 activation of pine nut shells (PNS/Steam and PNS/CO2 activated carbons) were produced and tested for drinking water treatment towards organic matter, pharmaceutical compounds, microcystin-LR and residual chlorine control.

To build the society

D5.8 Set of Policy Briefs on Regulation and Policy Instruments outlines comprehensive guidelines and strategic recommendations to enhance the governance and regulatory frameworks for watersmart systems across Europe. This deliverable builds on the foundational work completed in Task 5.4, which integrates insights from various stakeholders on regulatory and economic aspects, including financial mechanisms, incentives, and tariffs provided by IWW, as well as legal considerations from KWR. Through an analysis of the socio-economic factors and legal barriers identified in Task 5.2 and leveraging the socio-economic metrics developed in WP6, this document provides a set of at least four policy briefs. These briefs aim to foster a supportive environment for the broad application of water-smart solutions, proposing improved policy frameworks at local, national, and EU levels. The timing and thematic focus of these recommendations are aligned with current EU policy processes related to water and the circular economy, identifying optimal windows for the targeted dissemination of these policy briefs. D5.8 serves as a crucial tool for policy officers, stakeholders, and the public, offering synthetic, accessible 'take away' documents that encapsulate contributions from the involved Work Packages.

The LIFE Fitting deliverable

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.

This report of Work Package 5

This report contains the Living Lab final Strategic Agendas as agreed with stakeholders in the Communities of Practice and a description of their development process. Within the final Strategic Agendas, some main achievements during the B-WaterSmart project to achieve the strategic objectives that were set for the specific Living Labs are highlighted. Furthermore, the next steps to realise the Strategic Agendas are elaborated. For some of the Living Labs becoming a Water-Oriented Living Lab and/or a member of the European Network of Living Labs will be a key factor for ensuring the continuation of the Living Lab after the end of the B-WaterSmart project.

Within the scope of WP5

This deliverable focuses on the purpose, scope, and assumptions of the resilience assessment method. It presents the structure of the method and of the frameworks. Two frameworks are provided, the ICARIA RAF (Resilience Assessment Framework) for a holistic assessment and, as a starting point, the ICARIA RAT (Resilience Assessment Tool) for a specific assessment of critical infrastructure and critical entities. Their concepts, detailed structure, tools, and outputs are described in this deliverable. Details are given on data input (namely data from modelling activities) and data output (namely to the decision support system). User guidance is provided for the successful implementation of a resilience assessment.

This document is the third version of the Implementation Plan and Risk Contingency Plan. First, it indicates how the work of the project has been divided and organized as well as the way to evaluate if the project objectives are reached according to the schedule and within the budget. Additionally, it defines key steps to follow in order to initiate the project action. The second part lists a number of risks that could affect different aspects of the project outcome. It includes risk mitigation measures and a contingency plan for each case.

Este estudo visa aumentar a confiança na reutilização segura da água, utilizando tecnologias de tratamento avançado como ultrafiltração, ozonização e osmose inversa para avaliar a sua eficácia e limitações. Desenvolvido numa estação de tratamento de águas residuais (ETAR), o estudo comparou a qualidade da água resultante de processos em grande escala, como a ultrafiltração, com água tratada adicionalmente através de um sistema piloto de ozonização e osmose inversa, ou apenas osmose inversa. Todos os esquemas de tratamento estudados produziram água adequada ao consumo humano.

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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