Integrated High Resolution Imaging Ground Penetrating Radar and Decision Support System for WATER PIPEline Rehabilitation (WATERPIPE)
Many EU cities are experiencing increasing problems with their water
pipeline infrastructure. The cost of replacing these old, worn-out systems,
if left to deteriorate beyond repair, is astronomical and clearly beyond the
resources of many communities. Replacement, however, is not the only choice
as many of these systems can be rehabilitated at 30 to 70 percent of the
cost of replacement. Accordingly, resources are now increasingly being
allocated to address pipeline rehabilitation management issues. Due to the
emphasis on sustainable management, risk-based approaches for the
rehabilitation management of the water supply network need to be
developed.
Rehabilitation decisions should be based, inter alia, on inspection and
evaluation of the pipeline conditions. Yet, utilities cannot locate a number
of their old pipes and current inspection technologies typically do not
provide the needed detailed information on pipeline damage.
The objectives of this work are:
To develop a novel, high resolution imaging ground penetrating radar for the
detection of pipes, leaks and damages and the imaging of the damaged region
and evaluate it at a test site.
To produce an integrated system that will contain the equipment in ‘1’ and a
Decision-Support-System (DSS) for the rehabilitation management of the
underground water pipelines that will use input from the inspections to
assess, probabilistically, the time-dependent leakage and structural
reliability of the pipelines and a risk-based methodology for rehabilitation
decisions that considers the overall risk, including financial, social and
environmental criteria.
To field test the equipment and the DSS.
Contact information |
Mr Nikolas Uzunoglu, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
(email: nuzu@cc.ece.ntua.gr) |
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News type | Inbrief |
File link | n/a |
Source of information | Water and Soil Times newsletter |
Keyword(s) | WATER PIPEline, decision support |
Subject(s) | |
Geographical coverage | EU |
News date | 14/09/2006 |
Working language(s) | ENGLISH |