Simulator Platform Development for Integrated Drainage Systems

The traditional approach of stormwater treatment in combined sewer systems is currently under revision. The perspective is to treat the urban drainage system as an entity, thus comprising the three main components sewer system, wastewater treatment plant and recipient. The efficiency of planned modifications of the urban drainage system has to be investigated towards the environmental risk to the receiving water. The comparison with given water quality standards makes an assessment of the cost-efficiency ratio of planned modifications possible. Integrated water quality management requires a calibrated and verified mathematical model for the assessment of compliance with standards. Due to the long tradition of water quality modeling there are a number of models and computer programs available for the individual subsystems. The challenge is to link those existing approaches together. There are already some programs available that concentrate on a given environmental system. However such numerical tools give the user no choice of freedom apart from specifying values for the given set of model parameters. Hence there is an urgent need to develop overall simulation tools incorporating modules for the mathematical representation of sewer system, wastewater treatment plant and recipient. This project aims primarily on the development of a "general purpose"` platform on the topic of integrated urban drainage system management. That is, the program will provide only the interface that allows the user the implementation of a model of his own choice. This approach gives the opportunity to utilize existing source code with only minor adaptations. A research tool like that is urgently needed in the scientific community as an umbrella for ongoing and upcoming efforts on integrated urban drainage system modeling.