Real time control of the integrated urban wastewater system using simultaneously simulating surrogate models

The urban wastewater system (sewer and treatment plant) has a major impact on the river water quality of urban streams, To minimise this impact, real time control is a valuable option. Since the ultimate goal of any control strategy is to optimise the quality of the river system, it is useful to take pollutant immissions into account when determining the control strategy and/or the setpoints of the controller. However, a simultaneously simulating model of the complete system is needed in order to allow design and evaluation of such control strategies. In this work an integrated model of the urban wastewater system is created. This has been accomplished by implementing surrogate models of the three subsystems within a single software platform. The coupled submodels are subsequently used in a semi-hypothetical case study to optimise the resulting river water quality. An ammonia sensor in the river has been used to control the amount of water treated biologically in the treatment plant. It was shown that this integrated control could lower the peak ammonia concentration in the part of the river downstream of the treatment plant. Hence, a proof of principle has been given that the use of measurements in the river to perform control actions in the sewer system and the treatment plant is a promising option.