Satellite-enabled interactive education: scenarios and systems architectures

There are specific sectors of the economy that can benefit from satellite-based tele-education. Areas, such as maritime and agriculture, share common needs for both broadband connectivity at remote geographical areas that cannot otherwise be covered, and for innovative content for tele-education purposes. Furthermore, each area has special requirements with regard to the type of content to be delivered. In this paper we propose a set of architectural designs and case scenarios that will realise such interactive end-to-end education systems based on satellite communications. Services requirements in this setting are also identified and discussed

WaterMet2 model functional requirements

© TRUST 2012This report specifies the functional requirements of the WaterMet2 Model that will be developed to quantify the generic Urban Water System (UWS) metabolism based performance model in the TRUST project (TRansitions to the Urban water Services of Tomorrow). The report is not a project deliverable but rather a work-in-progress to describe different aspects of the model and its functionality. This report addresses two main parts of the WaterMet2 Model functionality. The first part illustrates principal concepts of WaterMet2 modelling as a mass balance base model. Two main aspects of water modelling (i.e. quantity and quality modelling approaches) are described and analysed first. Modelling of the intended risk analysis as one of the purpose of TRUST project is demonstrated. Then, the spatial and temporal scales of the model are better described as well as a brief description of intervention modelling. Second part of the report presents the specific indicators of the WaterMet2 model in three parts: (1) performance indicators linked to all water related flows in the UWS; (2) risk indicators based on the current data received from WA32; and (3) cost indicators including capital and operational ones. For all introduced indicators, the relevant input data requirements are presented. Finally, the model calibration approach is briefly described. This document is based on the authors' current best understanding of the UWS metabolism concept and the associated performance related issues. Therefore, as WaterMet2 model progresses in more details, information presented in this report is likely to evolve and improv

Pipe burst diagnostics using evidence theory

Copyright © IWA Publishing 2011.The definitive peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Journal of Hydroinformatics Volume 13 Issue 4, pp. 596–608 (2011), DOI: 10.2166/hydro.2010.201 and is available at www.iwapublishing.com.This paper presents a decision support methodology aimed at assisting Water Distribution System (WDS) operators in the timely location of pipe bursts. This will enable them to react more systematically and promptly. The information gathered from various data sources to help locate where a pipe burst might have occurred is frequently conflicting and imperfect. The methodology developed in this paper deals effectively with such information sources. The raw data collected in the field is first processed by means of several models, namely the pipe burst prediction model, the hydraulic model and the customer contacts model. The Dempster–Shafer Theory of Evidence is then used to combine the outputs of these models with the aim of increasing the certainty of determining the location of a pipe burst within a WDS. This new methodology has been applied to several semi-real case studies. The results obtained demonstrate that the method shows potential for locating the area of a pipe burst by capturing the varying credibility of the individual models based on their historical performance

Satellite-enabled educational services specification and requirements analysis based on user feedback

Advanced tele-education services provision in remote geographically dispersed user communities (such as agriculture and maritime), based on the specific needs and requirements of such communities, implies significant infrastructural and broadband connectivity requirements for rich media, timely and quality-assured content delivery and interactivity. The solution to broadband access anywhere is provided by satellite-enabled communication infrastructures. This paper aims to present such satellite-based infrastructures that are capable of addressing the core requirements of rich media educational services in remote areas. The paper proceeds to examine a set of services that will realise such satellite-based distance learning systems and to assess the targeted users’ interest in such services. The presented work is undertaken within the framework of the EU-funded Broadband Access Satellite Enabled Education (BASE2) project. Furthermore, requirements analysis, based on the Volere template (Robertson) and on user feedback, is undertaken

Urban water modelling and the daily time step: issues for a realistic representation

Interest in modelling the total Urban Water Cycle is increasing, due to the realisation of the need for (high-level) flow integration to address issues of recycling, re-use and ultimately sustainability. Urban Water Cycle models are generally operating on a daily time step due to the inherent strategic/planning nature of such work. However, the choice of time step implies (more or less hidden) assumptions which may influence significantly the model’s performance. One such assumption – the way in which water tanks (e.g. rainwater, greywater, greenwater etc) are operated in terms of the sequence between tank overflow (spill) and water extracted from the tank for use (yield) is investigated in this paper. The two alternative sequences are termed here Yield After Spill (YAS) and Yield Before Spill (YBS). The Urban Water Optioneering Tool was used and advantages and disadvantages of these sequences were examined. The paper reviews the differences under a series of technological configurations and draws recommendations for modelling practice. It is suggested that YAS/YBS schemes have different impacts depending on the technological configuration of the case study under investigation, but that under normal operating conditions, daily time step simulations with YBS schemes tend to result in tank sizes that are (marginally) closer to sizes obtained by hourly time-steps. It is however suggested that YAS schemes should be preferred when the parameter of interest is runoff

An integrated system dynamics - Cellular automata model for distributed water-infrastructure planning

PublishedJournal ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IWA Publishing via the DOI in this record.© IWA Publishing 2016.Modern distributed water-Aware technologies (including, for example, greywater recycling and rainwater harvesting) enable water reuse at the scale of household or neighbourhood. Nevertheless, even though these technologies are, in some cases, economically advantageous, they have a significant handicap compared to the centralized urban water management options: It is not easy to estimate a priori the extent and the rate of the technology spread. This disadvantage is amplified in the case of additional uncertainty due to expansion of an urban area. This overall incertitude is one of the basic reasons the stakeholders involved in urban water are sceptical about the distributed technologies, even in the cases where these appear to have lower cost. In this study, we suggest a methodology that attempts to cope with this uncertainty by coupling a cellular automata (CA) and a system dynamics (SD) model. The CA model is used to create scenarios of urban expansion including the suitability of installing water-Aware technologies for each new urban area. Then, the SD model is used to estimate the adoption rate of the technologies. Various scenarios based on different economic conditions and water prices are assessed. The suggested methodology is applied to an urban area in Attica, Greece.This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund– ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: THALES. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund. Hydropolis: Urban development and water infrastructure - Towards innovative decentralized urban water management

Enhancement of urban pluvial flood risk management and resilience through collaborative modelling: a UK case study

This paper presents the main findings and lessons learned from the development and implementation of a new methodology for collaborative modelling, social learning and social acceptance of flood risk management technologies. The proposed methodology entails three main phases: (1) stakeholder analysis and engagement; (2) improvement of urban pluvial flood modelling and forecasting tools; and (3) development and implementation of web-based tools for collaborative modelling in flood risk management and knowledge sharing. The developed methodology and tools were tested in the Cranbrook catchment (London Borough of Redbridge, UK), an area that has experienced severe pluvial (surface) flooding in the past. The developed methodologies proved to be useful for promoting interaction between stakeholders, developing collaborative modelling and achieving social acceptance of new technologies for flood risk management. Some limitations for stakeholder engagement were identified and are discussed in the present paper

Quantitative UWS performance model: WaterMet2

© TRUST 2014The report presents a detailed description of the WaterMet2 methodology and tool as a quantitative urban water system (UWS) performance model. The WaterMet2 model is described in three distinct parts. Modelling concepts of different components in WaterMet2 are first described. It provides an overview of the principle flows/fluxes modelled in spatial and temporal scales in WaterMet2 and how they are modelled within the framework of mass balance equations in four subsystems (water supply, sub-catchment, wastewater and water resource recovery). The second part describes the WaterMet2 software. This consists of an overview of WaterMet2 on how input data are prepared, how to run a simulation and finally how to retrieve results in different formats. This part also introduces the WaterMet2 toolkit functions which can be used by other programming languages to call a WaterMet2 simulation model. In the third part, WaterMet2 is illustrated using the city of Oslo UWS as a generic reference model. This part first describes building and calibrating a WaterMet2 model for the existing UWS which faces water scarcity problems for a 30-year planning horizon starting from year 2011. Then, it examines two alternative intervention options (i.e. adding new water resource and water treatment options) which are supported by the WaterMet2. These options are examined for the UWS model and the improvements are compared to the business-as-usual case.European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013