Pipe Dreams

在发达国家，大多数人在大多数时候都认为安全清洁的饮用水供应是理所当然的。然而，水质问题确实会发生，并存在相关的健康风险。为了满足监管要求，英国水务公司在客户的水龙头处采集了水样，对水样的分析表明，连续三年，每200个样品中约有1个不符合大肠菌群的标准，大肠菌群是粪便污染的一个指标。该地区为数不多的流行病学研究证实存在一个问题，而且与管道基础设施有关。用于输送这些基本人力资源的管道基础设施是一个极其复杂的材料、管道尺寸、结构和附件的混合体，这些材料、管道尺寸、结构和附件通常以环路的形式连接在一起，需要相当长的时间才能以零敲碎打的方式开发出来。这些基础设施对我们的城镇和城市来说是不可或缺的，由于相关的成本和破坏，广泛更换是不可行的。虽然已有知识和工具可以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理解却非常贫乏。这种埋在地下的基础设施系统作为一个动态的物理、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，在运输过程中，有许多主要的和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未知但正在恶化，情况进一步复杂化。这一具有挑战性的工程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供水系统中发生的物理生化反应和相互作用的新知识。该团队将整合工程、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米长温控管道测试环路设施的实验研究，以及与英国水务公司进行的雄心勃勃的现场试验（申请人的两个领域都具有特殊的专业知识）。所获得的新理解和知识将应用于开发一套分析和预测工具，以推动水分配系统的操作、管理、修复和维护方式的范式转变，向主动管理的方向发展，以实现近乎实时的操作。该项目雄心勃勃，但为英国提供了建立一个国际专业领域的机会，并在一个不断扩大的公共利益和意义的研究领域引领世界。最明显的产出将是优质的水质，成本最低，符合日益了解情况的社会的要求，从而提高公众的健康和福祉。从长远来看，多学科团队将寻求进一步发展多学科方法，以适应更复杂的城市水循环环境，并寻求促进整个循环的综合、整体和可持续管理的进一步变化。

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.