SCC-PG Smart Septic Strategies: Data Integration to Manage Hidden Infrastructure Threats to Our Homes and Communities

住宅系统收集和处理家庭厕所、水槽、浴缸和洗涤用具的废水，是美国水利基础设施的关键组成部分。大约四分之一的美国家庭依赖化粪池系统来处理废水。这些庞大的隐蔽基础设施大多维护不善，在高用水量和/或家庭泄漏期间周期性超载。改善这些系统的功能将通过减少排放到环境中的未经处理或未经处理的废水的量来显著改善公众健康和环境质量，这反过来将减少地下水和地表水中危险病原体的暴露，通过减少过量的营养物质排放来改善水生生态系统的健康，并避免因水中细菌含量高而造成的禁渔区和海滩的经济损失。该项目的成果将最终促进智能化粪池系统的开发，改善基础设施资产管理，并减少对家庭、健康、供水和自然环境的威胁。该项目将首次集成现有智能水表的家庭规模用水和泄漏模式的高质量数据、化粪池系统行为的现场传感器测量、可显示化粪池系统故障的红外(IR)航空图像的自动处理，以及使用水质传感器持续监测社区溪流中的化粪池污染，以实现智能化粪池系统、基础设施资产管理，并减少对家庭、健康和供水的威胁。该项目还将创建创新的数据分析工具，以生成特定装置和设备的家庭用水情况明细，并进一步检测、分类和量化漏水及其对化粪池故障的影响。这些过程和组成技术的开发将与州、地区和地方各级的化粪池管理和监管官员密切合作，以确保这项研究产生的过程和产品将对这个长期被忽视的重要问题产生有意义的现实影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Residential systems collect and treat wastewater from home toilets, sinks, baths, and washing appliances and are a key component of the water infrastructure of the United States. Approximately one in four U.S. households relies on septic systems to treat their wastewater. Most of this vast hidden infrastructure is poorly maintained and periodically overloaded by periods of high water use and/or household leaks. Improving the functionality of these systems will lead to significant improvements to public health and environmental quality by reducing the volumes of untreated or under-treated wastewater released into the environment, which in turn will reduce exposures to dangerous pathogens in groundwater and surface waters, improve aquatic ecosystem health by reducing excess nutrient discharges, and avoid economic losses of closed fishing areas and beaches associated with high bacterial levels in the water. The results of this project will ultimately enable the development of smart septic systems, improved infrastructure asset management, and reduced threats to homes, health, water supplies, and the natural environment. This project will be the first to integrate high quality data on household-scale water use and leak patterns from existing smart water meters, in situ sensor measurements of septic system behavior, automated processing of infrared (IR) aerial imagery that can show septic system failure, and continuous monitoring of septic contamination in community streams with water quality sensors to enable smart septic systems, infrastructure asset management, and reduced threats to homes, health, and water supplies. The project will also create innovative data analytics tools that will generate household water usage profile breakdowns for specific fixtures and appliances, and further detect, classify and quantify water leakages and the impact to septic tank failures. The development of these processes and constituent technology will be performed in close collaboration with septic management and regulatory officials as the state, regional, and local level to ensure that the processes and products that result from this research will a meaningful real-world impact on this important and long-neglected issue.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.