This study describes the temporal and spatial variability of bacterial communities within a combined sewer system in England. Sampling was conducted over 9 months in a sewer system with intensive monitoring of hydraulic conditions. The bacterial communities were characterized by 16S rRNA gene-targeted terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. These data were related to the hyd...

Adaptation has become an important aspect of robot design. The work here describes the perception and motion control of MAKRO an autonomous robot for sewer inspection from the point of view of MAKRO’s adaptation to specific features of the sewer environment. Two features are crucial for MAKRO’s adaptation. First, narrow sewer pipes connected into a unified system via junctions, compose a graph-...

Effective decision support and model predictive control of real-time environmental systems require that evolutionary algorithms operate more efficiently. A suite of model predictive control (MPC) genetic algorithms are developed and tested offline to explore their value for reducing combined sewer overflow (CSO) volumes during real-time use in a deep-tunnel sewer system. MPC approaches include ...

A practical algorithm for 3-D interpretation of images taken in a sewer by a robot-inspector is presented. Modern sewers made of concrete present regular circular structures originating at the pipe ends as well as at the joints of the pipe sections. These pipe ends and joints provide regular marks on the sewer images and can be used for their 3-D interpretation. The key idea of the paper is to ...

Moving objects equipped with locating devices can report their locations periodically to data stream sewers. With the pervasiveness of moving objects, one single sewer cannot support all objects and queries in a wide area. As a result, multiple spatio-temporal data stream management systems must be deployed and thus result in a sewer network. It is vital for sewers in the network to collaborate...

Methane formation and emission in sewer systems has not received as much attention as hydrogen sulphide formation. Through field measurements from two rising mains, with an average sewage temperature of 28.4 and 26.6 degrees C, respectively, at the time of sampling, this study shows that a significant amount of methane can be produced in sewer systems, and that this production is positively cor...

Chemicals such as magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) and iron salts are widely used to control sulfide-induced corrosion in sewer networks composed of interconnected sewer pipe lines and pumping stations. Chemical dosing control is usually non-automatic and based on experience, thus often resulting in sewage reaching the discharge point receiving inadequate or even no chemical dosing. Moreover, inte...

Policy-makers have cited menstruation and lack of sanitary products as barriers to girls’ schooling. We evaluate these claims using a randomized evaluation of sanitary products provision to girls in Nepal. We report two findings. First, menstruation has a very small impact on school attendance: we estimate that girls miss a total of 0.4 days in a 180 day school year. Second, improved sanitary t...

The microbiological quality of 75 private drinking water supply boreholes in Co. Cork, Ireland was assessed in order to determine the incidence of contamination and the potential pathways of such contamination. Microbiological analysis was carried out using the membrane filtration technique for the recovery of thermotolerant (faecal) coliforms. The sanitary protection of the supplies was evalua...