I-Corps: Develop chemical markers for rapid and system-level sewer deterioration condition assessment

目前，下水道的维修（修理、更换和修复）主要以响应的方式进行，通常是由污水溢出和投诉驱动的。最近，许多污水系统业主已开始进行系统级的污水状况评估，以便进行预防性维修和修复。然而，唯一可用的技术是基于直接流量测量，由于复杂的下水道环境和流量测量技术的限制，这种技术可能会出错。由于基于单一数据源的数据做出如此大的投资决策可能会带来重大的系统性风险，因此，提供一种可替代的独立下水道评估方法至关重要。这个I-Corps项目旨在开发生活污水中的化学标记物，用于快速和系统级下水道恶化状况评估。此前nsf资助的一个项目发现，生活污水中总氮（TN）呈现出特征且稳定的日通量模式，降雨衍生入渗（RDII）引起的TN浓度变化可以可靠地估计RDII水平，从而判断下水道恶化的严重程度。TN通量稳定性及其预测下水道恶化的能力代表了一种新的下水道状况评估策略，可以补充和增强现有方法。

Currently, sewer maintenance (repair, replace and rehabilitation) is conducted largely in a responsive fashion, which is usually driven by sewage spills and complaints. Recently, many sewer system owners have started to implement system-level sewer condition assessment, in order to conduct preventative maintenance and rehabilitation. However, the only technology available is based on direct flow measurement, which can be erroneous due to the complex sewer environments and limitation of the flow measurement technologies. Since making such large investment decisions based on data from a single data source can introduce significant systematic risks, it is crucial that an alternative and independent sewer assessment approach is available.This I-Corps project aims to develop chemical markers in sanitary sewage for rapid and system-level sewer deterioration condition assessment. A previous NSF-funded project discovered that total nitrogen (TN) in sanitary sewage exhibited characteristic and stable daily flux pattern, and changes in TN concentration due to rainfall derived infiltration and inflow (RDII) can reliably estimate RDII level and hence sewer deterioration severity level. The flux stability of TN and its ability to predict sewer deterioration represents a new sewer condition assessment strategy that can complement and augment the current approaches.