UKCRIC: National Water Infrastructure Facility: Distributed Water Infrastructure

英国水务部门面临着非常重大的挑战：人口增加，客户期望更高，自然环境得到更好的保护，资源可用性减少，气候变化不确定。这些压力在城市地区尤其联合收割机，大多数英国公民居住在城市地区，这些地区由大型和越来越不可持续和不灵活的“遗留”供水和排水系统提供服务。这些大型遗留系统是一种不断恶化的资产，其中真实的投资长期减少。在英国，下水道和清洁水资产的推断设计寿命分别为800年和120年以上。然而，目前的平均资产寿命约为70年，我们已经经历了不可接受的服务水平。目前以持续、逐渐恶化的方式运行城市供水系统的前提已经不能接受。如果我们希望避免未来对我们的水基础设施进行大规模更新的巨额账单，我们迫切需要了解恶化情况，并开发创新的监测和干预方法。鉴于其行动对健康和环境的重大潜在影响，水务公司传统上是谨慎的创新采用者。认识到这一点以及英国面临的长期压力，很明显，迫切需要更科学的方法和更有证据的技术，以满足未来的期望，而不会给用水者带来重大的经济负担。（克兰菲尔德、纽卡斯尔和谢菲尔德大学）来解决这个问题。地表水管理和智能水系统（纽卡斯尔大学）：将提供一个新的地表水管理设施，以及能源、交通和信通技术方面的同等城市基础设施试验台。该设施将是模块化的，因此组件可以单独测试，串联以模拟城市水从屋顶到河流的流动。2.分布式水基础设施（谢菲尔德大学）：一个新的专门设计的水资产故障和恶化设施将使水和下水道管道和辅助结构的全面实验，以研究恶化和故障机制，管内生物/化学和物理过程，洪水和腐蚀过程以及在现实环境下的资产状况评估。奔宁水务集团在谢菲尔德的现有世界领先设施将通过提高测量能力得到加强。3.废水和饮用水处理（克兰菲尔德大学）：一个新的饮用水试验大厅将加强现有的一套工业规模的测试设施。该设施将支持研究处理和分配过程之间的相互依赖性，以及状态监测和性能技术。一个突破性的创新中心将为新型基础设施组件和子系统的设计、快速原型设计和测试提供灵活的空间，可视化设施将提供对来自校内和校外基础设施系统的传感器数据的访问，为分析和测试的进步提供机会。表示“世界”之义一流的研究基础设施，使英国水务部门的研究人员和创新者能够聚集在一起分享想法，然后从世界一流的实验室中受益，以开发和展示这些概念，并使其达到成熟水平适合实施，以实现对英国水基础设施的长期影响。这些新的知识、证据和创新将通过降低故障风险、减少对环境的影响以及降低未来不可接受的高投资的可能性，对我们目前的城市供水系统产生影响。

The UK water sector faces very significant challenges: increasing population, higher customer expectations, better protection of the natural environment, with reducing resource availability and uncertain climate change. These pressures particularly combine in urban areas where the majority of the UK's citizens live and which are served by large and increasingly unsustainable and inflexible "legacy" water and drainage systems. These large legacy systems are a deteriorating asset in which there have been long term reductions in real terms investment. In the UK, inferred sewer and clean water asset design lives are 800+ and 120+ years, respectively. Yet with the current average asset life of around 70 years we are already experiencing unacceptable levels of service. The current premise of operating urban water systems with continual, gradual deterioration is no longer acceptable. If we wish to avoid massive future bills for wholesale renewal of our water infrastructure we urgently need to understand deterioration and develop innovative ways of monitoring and intervening.Water utilities are traditionally cautious innovation adopters given the significant potential health and environmental implications of their actions. Appreciating this and the long term pressures facing the UK's (and international) water infrastructure systems it is clear that there is an urgent need for more scientifically based approaches and better evidenced technologies to meet future expectations without a significant economic burden on water users.UKCRIC will enhance research capacities in the following areas at three of the UK's leading urban water research groups (Cranfield, Newcastle and Sheffield Universities) to address this issue.1. Surface water management and smart water systems (Newcastle University): A new surface water management facility with equivalent urban infrastructure test-beds for energy, transport and ICT will be delivered. The facility will be modular so components can be tested in isolation, in series to model urban water as it moves from the roof to the river . 2. Distributed water infrastructure (University of Sheffield): A new specially designed water asset failure and deterioration facility will enable full scale experimentation of water and sewer pipes and ancillary structures to study deterioration and failure mechanisms, in-pipe biological/chemical and physical processes, flooding and corrosion processes and the assessment of asset condition under realistic environments. The existing world leading facilities of the Pennine Water Group at Sheffield will be enhanced with improved measurement capabilities. 3. Wastewater and potable water treatment (Cranfield University): A new potable water pilot hall will enhance the existing suite of industrial-scale test facilities. The facility will support research on the interdependencies between treatment and distribution processes, on condition monitoring & performance technologies. A breakthrough innovation hub will provide flexible space for design, rapid prototyping and testing of novel infrastructure components and sub-systems, visualisation facilities will provide access to sensor data from both on and off campus infrastructure systems providing opportunities for advances in analytics and testingThe aim of the UKCRIC facilities is to provide a collaborative, world-class research infrastructure that will allow UK researchers and innovators in the water sector to come together share ideas and then benefit from access to world class laboratories to develop and demonstrate those concepts so and to get them to a level of maturity appropriate for implementation to achieve long term impact on the UK's water infrastructure. This new knowledge, evidence and innovation will impact on our current urban water systems by reducing the risk of failure, reducing their environmental impact and reducing the likelihood of unacceptably high future investment.