Using software to streamline wastewater network design in impoverished areas

Treating wastewater is critical to remove contaminants and suspended solids. A 2021 study by Utrecht and United Nations Universities reported that only half of global wastewater is treated, with high-income countries treating about 70% of their wastewater, whereas low-income countries are only treating about 28%. The water that is not treated is discharged as is, contaminating aquatic ecosystems and urban hardscapes and impacting public health. Poor sanitation, diarrheal disease, and malaria are the result, disproportionately affecting children, the infirm, and the elderly. In India, where only an estimated 30% of the population is connected to the centralized sewer system, researchers working on a recent study for the Journal of Environmental Engineering posited that software solutions could assist in developing network layouts, improving hydraulic efficiency, and modeling water distribution networks. But which solution in this situation would be the most acceptable, affordable, and reliable?

Authors Anjali Bansal, Sri Harsha Kota, N. M. Anoop Krishnan, and Arvind Kumar Nema sought to answer this question by evaluating the utility of existing software tools for wastewater network design, focusing on the ability to minimize manual input and produce informative outputs.  They applied various efficiency metrics in their paper, “Critical Evaluation of Commonly Used Software Packages for Designing Wastewater Networks,” including adaptability, the user-friendliness of the interface, and the capacity to generate insightful hydraulic results. The campus of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was selected as a case study based on its geographic and demographic make-up, its topographical variability, hydrologic features, and architectural diversity. The team developed an individualized wastewater network using each of the four software solutions. Their findings demonstrate the potential for software solutions to streamline sewer network design processes and optimize sewer systems. Get the full results at The abstract is below.

Abstract

The wastewater management sector is grappling with a multitude of intricate challenges, including but not limited to insufficient infrastructure, financial constraints, rapid urbanization, population booms, and emerging environmental contaminants. These issues necessitate an urgent pivot toward sustainable wastewater management strategies that harmonize ecological, economic, and societal imperatives – a vision aligned with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. To extend the reach of wastewater networks globally, software tools play a pivotal role in the efficient design of sewer systems, given the inherent complexity of manual design processes. This research paper presents a comprehensive review of the available literature on sewer network design software and selects the most used options – Bentley SewerGEMS, Urbano CANALIS, and Mike+ SWMM – for in-depth analysis. Furthermore, a novel software solution, INSINCE, based on machine learning principles, is included, and evaluated. The assessment and comparison of results encompass critical parameters such as network length, velocity distribution, depth profiling, and hydraulic design obtained from these four software applications. Qualitative aspects including user-friendliness, cross-platform integration, and software capabilities are also discussed. This study underscores the pivotal role of software selection in achieving optimal sewer system designs, offering invaluable insights to enhance wastewater management practices.

Explore the software comparison results and see how it can help speed your sewer network designs in the ASCE Library:

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