Pipe Dreams

在发达国家，大多数人在大多数时候都能够将安全清洁的饮用水供应视为理所当然。然而，水质不合格的情况确实发生，并存在相关的健康风险。英国水务行业为满足监管要求而在客户自来水处采集的水样分析表明，连续三年，每200个水样中约有1个不符合大肠菌群标准，大肠菌群是粪便污染的指标。在该地区进行的几项流行病学研究证实存在问题，并且与管道基础设施有关。用于提供这种基本人力资源的管道基础设施是一种极其复杂的材料、管道尺寸、结构和附属设施的混合体，这些材料、管道尺寸、结构和附属设施连接成一个网络，通常是环形的，在相当长的时间内以零碎的方式发展。这一基础设施是我们城镇不可或缺的一部分，由于相关成本和中断，广泛更换是不可行的。虽然有现有的知识和工具来理解和预测这些资产的结构性能，但对其水质相关性能的知识和适用性理解非常差。这种地下基础设施系统充当动态物理、微生物和化学反应器，具有高表面积和高度可变的停留时间。因此，在运输饮用水的过程中，有一些主要的相互作用的物理和生物化学过程会降低饮用水的质量。由于基础设施的内部状况不明，而且不断恶化，情况进一步复杂化。这一愿景将使申请人能够建立一个世界领先的多学科团队，以获得由老化基础设施主导的配水系统内发生的物理生物化学反应和相互作用的新知识。该团队将整合工程和微生物学，化学和计算机科学。将广泛使用来自不同学科的最新仪器和测量技术，应用于谢菲尔德大学国际独特的600米长温控管道测试回路设施的实验研究，以及英国水务公司雄心勃勃的现场试验（申请人的特殊专业知识）。所获得的新的理解和知识将用于开发一套分析和预测工具，以推动供水系统的运行、管理、恢复和维护方式的范式转变，以实现接近真实的时间的主动管理。但也为英国提供了一个机会，建立一个国际专业领域，并在一个不断扩大的公共利益和重要性的研究领域引领世界。最明显的产出将是以最低的成本获得上级水质，符合日益信息化的社会的需求，从而提高公众健康和福祉。从长远来看，多学科团队将通过寻求进一步发展多学科方法来应对整个城市水循环的更复杂环境，并寻求刺激整个循环的综合、全面和可持续管理的进一步变革。

In the developed world most people are able to take the supply of safe clean drinking water for granted, most of the time. However water quality failures do occur and there are associated health risks. The analysis of water samples, taken at the customers tap by the UK Water Industry to meet regulatory requirements, has shown that for three consecutive years approximately 1 in every 200 samples failed to meet the standards for coliforms, an indicator of faecal contamination. The few epidemiologic studies in the area confirm that there is a problem and that it is related to the pipe infrastructure. This pipe infrastructure, used to deliver this basic human resource, is an extremely complicated mix of materials, pipe sizes and structures and appurtenances that are connected in a network, usually in loops, developed in a piecemeal manner over considerable time. This infrastructure is integral to our towns and cities and widespread replacement is unfeasible due to the associated costs and disruption. Whi1e there is existing knowledge and tools for understanding and making some predictions of the structural performance of these assets, the knowledge and applicable understanding of their water quality related performance is extremely poor.This system of buried infrastructure acts as a dynamic physical, microbiological and chemical reactor, with high surface area and with highly variable residence times. As a consequence there are a number of major and interacting physical and bio-chemical processes that degrade the quality of drinking water as it is transported. The situation is further complicated by the unknown, but deteriorating, internal condition of the infrastructure. This Challenging Engineering vision will enable the applicant to establish a world leading multidisciplinary team to derive new knowledge of the physical bio-chemical reactions and interactions occurring within water distribution systems, dominated by the aging infrastructure. The team will integrate across engineering and microbiological, chemical and computer science. Extensive use will be made of the latest instrumentation and measurement techniques from the different disciplines, applied to experimental studies on the internationally unique, 600m long temperature controlled pipe test loop facility at the University of Sheffield and ambitious live field trials with UK water companies (both areas of particular expertise of the applicant). The new understanding and knowledge gained will be applied to develop a suite of analysis and predictive tools to drive a paradigm shift in the way in which water distribution systems are operated, managed, rehabilitated and maintained for water quality with a move towards proactive management operating in near real time.The project is extremely ambitious, but presents the opportunity for the UK to establish an area of international expertise and to lead the world in an expanding research area of public interest and significance. The most apparent output will be superior water quality at least cost, consistent with the demands of an increasingly well informed society, leading to enhanced public health and well being. In the longer term, the multidisciplinary team will evolve by seeking to further develop the multidisciplinary approach for the even more complex environments of the complete urban water cycle and seek to stimulate further change for integrated, holistic and sustainable management across the cycle.