Proper monitoring of wastewaters and their negative impact on the environment represents a potential threat to the whole ecosystem. Smart Wastewater management systems are crucial for monitoring different variables in wastewater systems in order to regulate the current situation with wastewater and for prevention of natural disasters in the future by getting real-time information.
Common business practice in the world is to pump enormous volumes of water and other fluids into rivers, oceans and other water streams. Ss long as those volumes are measured by relevant parameters before being released into nature, it will not cause any harm to the entire ecosystem. But the problem occurs when too high concentration of various toxic elements from wastewater being released in nature.
Official statistic from “The United Nations World Water Development Report 2017” states that globally over 80% of all wastewater is discharged into the environment without any treatment or monitoring. Smart wastewater technology can deliver innovative and tailored solutions to the relevant institutions and water providers to maintain their operational network.
Environment Canada has provided various examples of pollutants that can be found in wastewaters. Decaying organic matter can result in the appearance of dissolved oxygen that can harm fish and other water species. Phosphorus and nitrogen can cause eutrophication and over-fertilization and eventually lead to a decline of specific species. Pathogen bacterias and viruses can contaminate the shellfish population and influence human health. Metals can influence human health a long-term basis. And some pharmaceutical and personal care products can dispose and have an impact on the overall ecosystem. All the toxic elements combined with water discharge can have a negative impact on the environment if there is no presence of adequate wastewater solutions.
To successfully deal with inadequate wastewater solutions, it is necessary to build a digital twin model that could monitor the entire water network map to provide relevant data set in real-time to the water distributors and business subjects. The Digital twin is a smart wastewater virtual interpretation of a physical object that collects and analyses data for future scenario prediction and understanding of current processes and how to improve them. There are different variables to track in wastewater management and it all depends on the business subject and their industry market, but the common goal for everyone should be to optimize the required processes using the latest technology with advanced analytics features and options. Wastewater facilities and other business subjects whose core business is water treatment should speed up the decision-making process related to regulating the velocity and water level and detecting the impurities from waters.
Geolux has partnered with PM Ecology Poland to provide smart solutions for wastewater monitorings. Geolux RSS-200 W radar uses contactless technology measurement of water flow. The surface velocity radar measures the flow of sewage water above the water surface, simplifying equipment maintenance. The casing can be either anodized or stainless which is resistant to different industrial or environmental conditions.
Geolux products are capable of measuring the concentration of wastewaters, and they can be integrated with 3rd party devices that detect specific substances in wastewater. From these measurements it is easy to monitor the total emissions of harmful substances. It also enables real-time detection of potential threats when wastewater or pollutant discharges are increasing rapidly.
PM Ecology had a problem with sewage monitoring and they are using surface velocity radar to identify flow speed in the sewage system with smart sensors for detecting harmful substances in the wastewaters. One of the problems they have faced is the clogging of the drainage channels, which can easily happen in the case of pouring rains. In those situations it has happened that the faeces have overflowed the channel and caused pollution. Real-time flow monitoring easily identifies where clogging has occurred and enables preventive maintenance of sewage network to avoid worst case pollution scenarios.
Another interesting case study that is related to the topic of monitoring wastewaters in Croatia is the floodgate Kuniščak. Kuniščak is one of the main drainage channels in the Zagreb sewage system where water flows towards the wastewater treatment plant on the Sava river. Besides regulating the water into the purifier system, another important purpose of Kuniščak is defense against floods. In 2020. there was a great flood in Zagreb that has caused massive water outflow and big material damage to many households in the nearby surrounding.
Because there was no proper equipment or technology that could monitor the situation regarding the water and floods, there was no possibility to make a decision about opening or closing the floodgate. To amend this shortcoming, Croatian water authority installed a Geolux LX-80 level sensor to continuously measure the water level in the sewage channel. Based on the real-time measurement, decisions can be made in a short period of time whether to open or close the floodgate in the case of an emergency. Because the sensor operates in the 80 GHz frequency band, measurements and radar are not affected by density or air temperature. The level sensor has helped Kunišak to build smart wastewater solution in reaching local climate resilience.
With expertise in developing advanced wastewater monitoring solutions, Geolux is capable of understanding the specific problem of each client and with a personal approach provides the best solution. Mentioned use cases and provided solutions are the result of working many years and solving the most complicated problems in water environmental monitoring by providing tailored solutions.