Scientific Results

This catalogue is obtained by conducting a systematic literature review of scientific studies and reviews related to monitoring, forecasting, and simulating the inland water cycle. The analysis maps scientific expertise across research groups and classifies findings by the type of inland water studied, application focus, and geographical scope. A gap analysis will identify missing research areas and assess their relevance to policymaking.

ID â–² Type Year Authors Title Venue/Journal DOI Research type Water System Technical Focus Abstract Link with Projects Link with Tools Related policies ID
publications-3711 article 2020 Sowby, Robert B. and Sowby, Robert B. Emergency preparedness after COVID-19: A review of policy statements in the U.S. water sector. Utilities Policy 10.1016/j.jup.2020.101058 Abstract Although COVID-19 has impacted water and wastewater utilities in new and profound ways, they must still provide their vital services despite the disruptions. The pandemic brings into focus their need for proactive emergency preparedness. In the United States, professional associations have long advocated in this area and have already developed considerable policy guidance and resources to help water and wastewater utilities prepare for and respond to emergencies. In the midst of the crisis, several U.S. policies are reviewed here. Utilities should reflect on their COVID-19 experience, learn from it, and apply their newfound perspective to strengthen future emergency preparedness.
publications-3712 article 2020 Liu, Mengnan and Liu, Mengnan and Fang, Shuiliang and Fang, Shuiliang and Dong, Huiyue and Dong, Huiyue and Xu, Cunzhi and Xu, Cunzhi Review of digital twin about concepts, technologies, and industrial applications Journal of Manufacturing Systems 10.1016/j.jmsy.2020.06.017
publications-3713 article 2020 Antwi, Sarpong Hammond and Antwi, Sarpong Hammond and Antwi, Sarpong Hammond and Getty, David and Getty, David and Linnane, Suzanne and Linnane, Suzanne and Rolston, Alec and Rolston, Alec COVID-19 water sector responses in Europe: A scoping review of preliminary governmental interventions. Science of The Total Environment 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143068 The unprecedented scale and impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and the accompanying lockdown implemented across many countries, has exacerbated water scarcity and security globally. Many European governments have introduced policy interventions to mitigate and protect their economies. Yet, water resources, which are a potential enabler in revitalising Europe's economy, have received few of such policy interventions since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency only in January 2020. Our scoping review of preliminary government responses of 27 European countries revealed that only 11 (40.7\%) of these countries implemented at least one policy intervention that considered the water sector. These interventions were typically short-term measures involving either full cost absorption or deferment of water bills. Much attention on water governance and management processes, policies and financial investments required to augment the resilience of the water sector amid a growing scarcity of freshwater, triggered by extreme climate variation and also by COVID-19 pandemic should therefore be central to post COVID-19 recovery efforts in Europe. This paper also proposes future research directions, including a study that will harmonise water demand and consumption trends during the pandemic in Europe and an assessment on how the water sector can withstand possible external shocks in future.
publications-3714 article 2021 Abu-Bakar, Halidu and Abu-Bakar, Halidu and Williams, Leonard and Williams, Leon and Hallett, Stephen R and Hallett, Stephen H. Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on household water consumption patterns in England 10.1038/s41545-021-00103-8 The COVID-19 lockdown has instigated significant changes in household behaviours across a variety of categories including water consumption, which in the south and east regions of England is at an all-time high. We analysed water consumption data from 11,528 households over 20 weeks from January 2020, revealing clusters of households with distinctive temporal patterns. We present a data-driven household water consumer segmentation characterising households’ unique consumption patterns and we demonstrate how the understanding of the impact of these patterns of behaviour on network demand during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown can improve the accuracy of demand forecasting. Our results highlight those groupings with the highest and lowest impact on water demand across the network, revealing a significant quantifiable change in water consumption patterns during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The implications of the study to urban water demand forecasting strategies are discussed, along with proposed future research directions.
publications-3715 article 2021 Xie, Xinyou and Xie, Xiang and Lu, Qiuchen and Lu, Qiuchen and Lu, Qiuchen and Herrera, Manuel and Herrera, Manuel and Herrera, Manuel and Yu, Qiaojun and Yu, Qiaojun and Parlikad, Ajith Kumar and Parlikad, Ajith Kumar and Schooling, Jennifer and Schooling, Jennifer Does historical data still count? Exploring the applicability of smart building applications in the post-pandemic period Sustainable Cities and Society 10.1016/j.scs.2021.102804 Abstract The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous impact on our daily lives, including the way people interact with buildings. Leveraging the advances in machine learning and other supporting digital technologies, recent attempts have been sought to establish exciting smart building applications that facilitates better facility management and higher energy efficiency. However, relying on the historical data collected prior to the pandemic, the resulting smart building applications are not necessarily effective under the current ever-changing situation due to the drifts of data distribution. This paper investigates the bidirectional interaction between human and buildings that leads to dramatic change of building performance data distributions post-pandemic, and evaluates the applicability of typical facility management and energy management applications against these changes. According to the evaluation, this paper recommends three mitigation measures to rescue the applications and embedded machine learning algorithms from the data inconsistency issue in the post-pandemic era. Among these measures, incorporating occupancy and behavioural parameters as independent variables in machine learning algorithms is highlighted. Taking a Bayesian perspective, the value of data is exploited, historical or recent, pre- and post-pandemic, under a people-focused view.
publications-3716 article 2021 Keck, Jonathan and Keck, Jonathan and Lee, Juneseok and Lee, Juneseok Embracing Analytics in the Water Industry Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0001375 Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.
publications-3717 article 2021 Berglund, Emily Zechman and Berglund, Emily Zechman and Thelemaque, Nathalie and Thelemaque, Nathalie and Spearing, Lauryn A. and Spearing, Lauryn A. and Faust, Kasey M. and Faust, Kasey M. and Kaminsky, Jessica and Kaminsky, Jessica and Sela, Lina and Sela, Lina and Goharian, Erfan and Goharian, Erfan and Abokifa, Ahmed A. and Abokifa, Ahmed A. and Lee, Juneseok and Lee, Juneseok and Keck, Jonathan and Keck, Jonathan and Giacomoni, Marcio and Giacomoni, Marcio and van Zyl, J. E. and van Zyl, Jakobus E. and Harkness, Brendon and Harkness, Brendon and Yang, Yi-Chen E. and Yang, Yuan and Yang, Y. C. Ethan and da Conceição Cunha, Maria and da Conceição Cunha, Maria and Ostfeld, Avi and Ostfeld, Avi and Kadinski, Leonid and Kadinski, Leonid Water and Wastewater Systems and Utilities: Challenges and Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0001373 Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.
publications-3718 article 2021 Pylianidis, Christos and Pylianidis, Christos and Osinga, Sjoukje A. and Osinga, Sjoukje A. and Athanasiadis, Ioannis N. and Athanasiadis, Ioannis N. Introducing digital twins to agriculture Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 10.1016/j.compag.2020.105942 Abstract Digital twins are being adopted by increasingly more industries, transforming them and bringing new opportunities. Digital twins provide previously unheard levels of control over physical entities and help to manage complex systems by integrating an array of technologies. Recently, agriculture has seen several technological advancements, but it is still unclear if this community is making an effort to adopt digital twins in its operations. In this work, we employ a mixed-method approach to investigate the added-value of digital twins for agriculture. We examine the extent of digital twin adoption in agriculture, shed light on the concept and the benefits it brings, and provide an application-based roadmap for a more extended adoption. We report a literature review of digital twins in agriculture, covering years 2017-2020. We identify 28 use cases, and compare them with use cases in other disciplines. We compare reported benefits, service categories, and technology readiness levels to assess the level of digital twin adoption in agriculture. We distill the digital twin characteristics that can provide added-value to agriculture from the examined digital twin applications in agriculture and in other disciplines. Then, inspired by digital twin applications in other disciplines, we propose a roadmap for digital twins in agriculture, consisting of examples of growing complexity. We conclude this paper by identifying the distinctive characteristics of agricultural digital twins.
publications-3719 article 2021 Ramos, Helena M. and Ramos, Helena M. and Morillo, Jorge García and Morillo, Jorge García and Díaz, J.A. Rodríguez and Díaz, José Antonio Acevedo and Díaz, Juan Antonio Rodríguez and Carravetta, Armando and Carravetta, Armando and McNabola, Aonghus and McNabola, Aonghus Sustainable Water-Energy Nexus towards Developing Countries’ Water Sector Efficiency Energies 10.3390/en14123525 Water management and energy recovery can improve a system’s sustainability and efficiency in a cost-effective solution. This research assesses the renewable energy sources used in the water sector, as well as the related water sector performance indicators within Portuguese water management systems. A deep analysis of 432 water entities in Portugal, based on ERSAR data base, was conducted in order to identify factors to be improved regarding the system efficiency. On the other hand, the potential energy recovery developed in the REDAWN project was also used as a reference for the application of micro hydropower (MHP) solutions in the water sector. A water and energy nexus model was then developed to improve the systems efficiency and sustainability. A real case study in Africa, the Nampula water supply system, located in Mozambique, was selected as a promising potential for energy recovery. The application of a pump-as-turbine (PAT) allows the reduction in system costs and environmental impacts while increasing its efficiency. The proposed MHP has a capacity to generate ~23 MWh/year, providing significant savings. The developed economic analysis indicates the project is profitable, with an IRR ~40\% depending on the energy selling price. This project can avoid the emission of more than 12 tCO2 to the atmosphere, and it can help to reduce the system’s real losses by more than 10,000 m3/year. Consequently, it creates a total economic benefit of 7604 EUR/year.
publications-3720 article 2021 Menneer, Tamaryn and Menneer, Tamaryn and Qi, Zening and Qi, Zening and Taylor, Tim and Taylor, Tim and Paterson, Cheryl and Paterson, Cheryl and Tu, Gengyang and Tu, Gengyang and Tu, Gengyang and Elliott, Lewis R. and Elliott, Lewis R. and Morrissey, Karyn and Morrissey, Karyn and Mueller, Markus and Mueller, Markus Changes in Domestic Energy and Water Usage during the UK COVID-19 Lockdown Using High-Resolution Temporal Data. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 10.3390/ijerph18136818 In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the UK Government provided public health advice to stay at home from 16 March 2020, followed by instruction to stay at home (full lockdown) from 24 March 2020. We use data with high temporal resolution from utility sensors installed in 280 homes across social housing in Cornwall, UK, to test for changes in domestic electricity, gas and water usage in response to government guidance. Gas usage increased by 20\% following advice to stay at home, the week before full lockdown, although no difference was seen during full lockdown itself. During full lockdown, morning electricity usage shifted to later in the day, decreasing at 6 a.m. and increasing at midday. These changes in energy were echoed in water usage, with a 17\% increase and a one-hour delay in peak morning usage. Changes were consistent with people getting up later, spending more time at home and washing more during full lockdown. Evidence for these changes was also observed in later lockdowns, but not between lockdowns. Our findings suggest more compliance with an enforced stay-at-home message than with advice. We discuss implications for socioeconomically disadvantaged households given the indication of inability to achieve increased energy needs during the pandemic.