Optimal Strategies for the Financially Sustainable Management of Watershed Resources and Water Distribution Infrastructure

申请人建议通过整合两个主要研究元素，为实施安大略省环境部（MOE）财政可持续饮用水和废水系统立法所需的知识库做出贡献。首先，将增强一个完全集成的水文模拟模型，以量化地下水和地表水流量与代表市政内水和废水分配系统的工程结构之间的相互作用，其中这种相互作用是由于泄漏的水管以及卫生和雨水下水道而发生的，并影响流域尺度水资源的数量和质量，特别强调营养负荷。其次，将开发一个市政财务控制模型，以模拟替代管理策略的影响，以平衡规定水费的收入乘以饮用水消耗量和废水排放量，以及为维持供水和废水分配系统的状况而进行的基本工程和运营和维护活动所需的费用。最佳管理策略寻求以可持续的资本储备将总成本降至最低，同时将流域的养分负荷降至最低。申请人的研究成果是开发软件，将拟议的水文和财务控制模型集成到一个单一的计算框架中，并使市政当局能够遵守教育部在财务上可持续的饮用水和废水系统立法。特别是，该软件将明确允许市政当局将水文和财政不确定性纳入框架，并明确定价给定管理策略可能无法实现由未来养分负荷或自筹资金条件确定的设计目标的风险。

The applicant proposes to contribute to the knowledge-base required to implement Ontario Ministry of the Environment's (MOE) financially sustainable drinking-water and wastewater system legislation by integrating two major research elements. First, a fully-integrated hydrologic simulation model will be enhanced to quantify the interaction of groundwater and surface water flow with engineered structures representing the water and wastewater distribution system within the municipality, where this interaction occurs due to leaking water mains as well as sanitary and storm sewers, and impacts the quantity and quality of the watershed-scale water resource with a specific emphasis on nutrient loading. Second, a municipal financial control model will be developed to simulate the impact of alternative management strategies for balancing the revenue from prescribed water rates multiplied against the amount of potable water consumed as well as wastewater discharged, with expenses needed to fund capital works and operation and maintenance activities to maintain the condition of the water and wastewater distribution system. The optimal management strategy seeks to minimize total costs with a sustainable capital reserve, and simultaneously acts to minimize nutrient loading on the watershed. The outcome of the applicant's research is to develop software that integrates the proposed hydrologic and financial control models into a single computation framework, and enables municipalities to comply with the MOE's financially sustainable drinking-water and wastewater system legislation. In particular, the software will explicitly allow municipalities to integrate hydrologic and financial uncertainty into the framework, and explicitly price the risk that a given management strategy may fail to meet design objectives defined by either future nutrient loading or self-financing conditions.