Latest Insights on Wastewater Management
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NZ Cities Urgently Need To Become 'Spongier' — But System Change Will Be Expensive
2/22/2023
Floods, storms, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense in a changing climate, and cities are poorly prepared for what is coming. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is now a lot more talk about the need for “sponge cities.” The basic principle is to manage urban flood risks by utilizing more natural drainage and flood-resilient systems and material.
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Superpowers For Water Systems
2/17/2023
Discover how your digital twin can give your team members who operate your water distribution systems powers they don’t have today.
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How Many Isolation Valves Are Enough?
2/17/2023
Without isolation valves, repairing a pipe break or performing other maintenance would require shutting down the entire water distribution system. But how many isolation valves are actually needed?
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SWAN Corner: Reimagining Smart Water — Reflecting On 10 Years
2/8/2023
This coming March will be my 10th year at SWAN — the Smart Water Networks Forum. Crazy how time flies. I remember excitedly attending my first conference at WATEC Israel in 2015 as a Research Analyst. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have always been a “water lover,” inspired by protecting wild, endangered salmon. So, what have I learned in 10 years?
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Stormwater Management Is A Worldwide Challenge
2/6/2023
Last month, I wrote about San Francisco's great rain garden/bio-retention basin project. Strategically placed sunken curb cuts, swales, or park features collect stormwater and let it filter into the ground, reducing the pressure on overwhelmed storm drains and sewers.
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Rain Gardens Guarding San Francisco
1/27/2023
Laurie Lauria and I spent last week moving out of San Francisco up to Napa, California, dodging the raindrops and taking advantage of a few dry days in this remarkably stormy winter — weather that makes this a perfect time to talk about the need to capture rainwater and protect overwhelmed urban sewer systems.
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As Heatwaves And Floods Hit Cities Worldwide, These Places Are Pioneering Solutions
1/23/2023
Climate change is going just as badly for cities as we have been warned it would. Extreme weather is increasingly common and severe globally. Australian cities have endured a number of recent disastrous events. It’ll get worse, too. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fact sheet outlining impacts on human settlements is a very sobering read.
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Flood Forecasts In Real-Time With Block-By-Block Data Could Save Lives — A New Machine Learning Method Makes It Possible
1/19/2023
I am a hydrologist who sometimes works in remote areas, so interpreting weather data and forecast uncertainty is always part of my planning. As someone who once nearly drowned while crossing a flooded river where I shouldn’t have, I am also acutely conscious of the extreme human vulnerability stemming from not knowing exactly where and when a flood will strike.
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Robots Protecting Our Sewers
1/3/2023
For centuries, engineers have worked on solutions to bring fresh water to cities and then get rid of wastewater safely. From the Roman aqueduct to the Victorian super sewer, water technology has had to keep pace with growing demand since humans first started to live together.
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Cincinnati-Area Sewer Agency Turns to Sensors For Better Data Collection
12/15/2022
Listen to Scott Bessler, the assistant superintendent for the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, sharing his experience using Kando's technology to digitalize wastewater surveillance.