Pennine Water Group (PWG); Urban Water Systems for a Changing World

城市供水系统具有前所未有的战略重要性--它们是社会的重要基础之一。可靠地提供安全饮用水以及有效的排水和排污服务对我们所有人都是至关重要的。社会提高了对与提供水服务有关的一些环境、社会和经济问题的认识。考虑的因素包括气候变化、缺水、水安全、洪水、干旱、能源使用、碳足迹、环境破坏和对人类健康的影响。这些因素，再加上我们现有的许多城市水基础设施系统复杂、陈旧和不断恶化，给未来的水务行业带来了重大的新挑战。它们还带来了重大的新的和令人兴奋的研究挑战，谢菲尔德大学和布拉德福德大学的Pennine Water Group(PWG)最适合解决这一问题。从历史上看，PWG的国际声誉一直建立在提供高质量的科学研究以满足水行业需求的基础上。这是通过采取以城市水资产管理为重点的多学科方法实现的。我们不断发展的未来愿景要求过渡到“可持续的综合城市供水系统”，即“超越管道”，转向更广泛的系统定义。我们建议在一系列规模上推进和交付我们未来的研究，并将人工基础设施和大流域的自然过程整合到一个包含技术、体制、经济和文化问题的整体框架内。这一框架将以新的和新颖的科学和技术进步为基础，但将涉及广泛的利益攸关方。平台赠款续期将通过促进新的跨学科研究想法以及与业界和其他利益攸关方更有效的整合，支持从多学科小组向跨学科小组的过渡。这一愿景包括三个关键发展领域(1)可持续集成系统和对水敏感的城市设计(2)新技术的开发和交付以及(3)实施和治理。新平台赠款将由索尔教授领导，核心学术管理团队包括Biggs、Boxall、Horoshenkov、Sharp和Tait。该小组将负责交付三个关键领域的所有基础科学成果和成果，但也负责监督支出、制定未来筹资战略、工作人员和职业发展以及与外部利益攸关方的互动。管理小组将寻求工业咨询小组和国际科学咨询小组的支持和指导。现有PWG学术人员的一个主要优势是他们对跨RCUK学科的合作和更广泛的参与充满热情。新的平台拨款建议包括四名新的学术同事，勒纳、奥斯本、贝克和莫利纽克斯-霍奇森，他们将提供重要的附加技术专长，我们目前正在与他们合作资助项目。这些工作人员将在一个独特的团队中提高PWG的核心技能，这个团队将看到重大和更多的机会来刺激和回应新的跨学科研究想法和倡议。根据我们现有的成功做法，我们将利用平台资助作为一种灵活的资源，提供缺口资金，以支持我们主要研究人员未来的长期职业生涯，提供访问海外研究小组的机会，并在主要国际会议上介绍我们的工作。特别重要的一点是，平台赠款将允许优化为我们所有研究人员提供的培训、网络和指导，在这里，将特别强调未来学术生涯所需的技能集。

Urban water systems have never been more strategically important - they are one of the key foundations of society. The reliable provision of safe drinking water and effective drainage and sewerage services is essential to us all. Society has developed an increased awareness of a number of environmental, social and economic issues associated with the provision of water services. Factors considered include the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, water security, flooding, drought, energy use, carbon footprint, environmental damage and impact on human health. These factors, combined with the fact that many of our existing urban water infrastructure systems are complex, old and deteriorating, creates significant new challenges for the water industry into the future. They also create significant new and exciting research challenges that the Pennine Water Group (PWG) at the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford is best placed to address.Historically the international reputation of the PWG has been built on delivering high quality scientific research that addresses the needs of the water industry. This has been achieved by taking a multi-disciplinary approach focused on urban water asset management. Our evolving vision for the future requires a transition to 'Sustainable Integrated Urban Water Systems' that 'move beyond the pipe' to a broader system definition. We propose to progress and deliver our future research at a range of scales and to integrate both man-made infrastructure and natural processes in large catchments within a holistic framework that incorporates technical, institutional, economic and cultural issues. This framework will be underpinned by new and novel scientific and technological advances but will involve the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders. The platform grant renewal will support the transition from a multi-disciplinary to a trans-disciplinary group through fostering new inter-disciplinary research ideas combined with an ever more effective integration with industry and other stakeholders. This vision has 3 key development areas (1) Sustainable integrated systems and water sensitive urban design (2) Development and delivery of new technologies and (3) Implementation and governance.The new platform grant will be led by Prof. Saul with a core academic management team of Biggs, Boxall, Horoshenkov, Sharp and Tait. This team will be responsible for the delivery of the all fundamental science and outputs within the three key areas, but also for the monitoring of expenditure, developing future funding strategy, staff and career development and interactions with external stakeholders. The management group will seek support and guidance from both an Industrial Advisory Panel and an International Scientific Advisory Panel.A major strength of the existing PWG academic staff is their enthusiasm for collaboration and wider engagement across the RCUK disciplines. The new platform grant proposes to include four new academic colleagues, Lerner, Osborn, Beck and Molyneux-Hodgson, who will provide significant add-on technical expertise and with whom we are currently collaborating on funded projects. These staff will enhance the core skills of PWG, within a unique team, that will see significant and enhanced opportunities to stimulate and respond to new cross-discipline research ideas and initiatives. Following our successful existing practice, we will use the platform grant as a flexible resource to provide gap funding to support the future long term careers of our key researchers, to provide opportunities to visit overseas research groups and to present our work at major International Conferences. A point of specific importance is that the platform grant will allow the optimisation of the training, networking and mentoring afforded to all our researchers, and here, special emphasis will be given to the skills set required for a future academic career.