One of the greatest challenges facing civil engineers in the 21st century is the stewardship of ageing infrastructure. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the networks of tunnels, pipelines and bridges that lie beneath and above the major cities around the world. Much of this infrastructure was constructed more than half a century ago and there is widespread evidence of its deterioration. Tunnels, particularly old ones, are prone to being influenced by activities such as adjacent construction, for instance piling, deep excavations and other tunnel construction. Excessive leakage and pipe bursts are frequent and usually unanticipated. Importantly, underground structures often cannot be inspected when they are being used by trains or due to other physical constraints. The fragility of old infrastructure also presents a challenge for new construction in congested urban environments. Little is known of the long-term performance of such infrastructure. These uncertainties and the importance of safety to users and consumers prompted the initiation of recent research projects investigating the prospect of damage detection and decision making and the use of novel materials to mitigate damage. Advances in the development of innovative sensors such as fibre optic sensors and micro electrical mechanical sensors (MEMS) offer intriguing possibilities that can radically alter the paradigms underlying existing methods of condition assessment and monitoring. Future monitoring systems will undoubtedly comprise Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and will be designed around the capabilities of autonomous nodes. Each node in the network will integrate specific sensing capabilities with communication, data processing and power supply. It is therefore the objective of this proposal to demonstrate how large numbers of sensors can be integrated into large-scale engineering systems to improve performance and extend the lifetime of infrastructure, while continuously evaluating and managing uncertainties and risks. This proposal is a joint project between the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and comprises an integrated research program to evaluate and develop prototype WSN systems. The main objectives of this proposal are to bridge advances in modelling large-scale engineering infrastructure with advances in wireless sensor networks and to develop a low-cost smart sensing environment for monitoring ageing public infrastructure. Three application domains will be studied in detail: (i) monitoring water supply and sewer systems and (ii) monitoring tunnels and (iii) monitoring bridges. The complexity of the monitoring system requires the following research areas to be explored : sensor systems, wireless communications, autonomous systems, information management, programming and design tools, trust security and privacy, systems theory, human factors and social issues. Field trials will be carried out with London Underground Ltd., Thames Water, Highways Agency and Humber Bridge. Intel Corporation will support the project with hardware for the trials.

The water industry is the fourth most energy intensive secotr in the UK and uses approximately 2 -3 % of net UK electricity releasing approximately four million tonnes of green house gas emissions (carbon dioxide equivalent) every year. The industry is making progress to produce more renewable energy from its waste biomass sources. However, only 493 GWh was generated by water utilities in the UK in 2005/06 about 6.4 % of its actual requirements. The government has called for research into potentially more efficient energy generation technologies from biomass which would contribute significantly to the UK's policy objectives of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010 and for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Innovative research into low carbon treatment and production and storage and use of biogas in the water sector has the potential to offer step-change benefits to the UK's energy system. This project seeks to secure a paradigm shift in wastewater treatment and biogas application. A pilot scale feasibility study is proposed to examine: (1) the fundamental operation of an anaerobic bioreactor using fortified influent wastewater; and (2) increasing the energy-production capacity of the generated renewable biogas. This approach significantly alters the wastewater treatment flow-sheet by reducing dependence on the energy intensive activated sludge process. The project has the potential for UK energy savings of 0.12 kWh per cubic metre of wastewater treated. Over 1 million cubic metres of wastewater are treated every day which potentially corresponds to savings of 438GWh per year and 188,469 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This is approximately equivalent to off setting 122,000 people flying London to New York return. Potentially fortified anaerobic treatment will also yield >10 % more biogas than is currently available from anaerobic digesters. Therefore, it is important to increase its energy production capacity in line with government developments for local energy and increased energy security. Currently biogas is used in combined heat and power in the UK water sector but biogas use in fuel cells, as a transport gas and for gas supply could provide greater flexibility and efficiency with more storage opportunities. However, these applications require biogas to be upgraded. This project seeks to examine in-situ methane enrichment to provide a better economy of scale for upgrading biogas and thereby maximising the overall energy production capacity of wastewater carbon. This project will therefore help to provide the 'scientific advance and industrial innovation to utilise biomass to meet the increasing demands for sustainable products from renewable sources' called for by the government.

The project aims to create a prototype multi-sensor device, and undertake fundamental enabling research, for the location of underground utilities by combining novel ground penetrating radar, acoustics and low frequency active and passive electromagnetic field (termed quasi-static field) approaches. The multi-sensor device is to employ simultaneously surface-down and in-pipe capabilities in an attempt to achieve the heretofore impossible aim of detecting every utility without local proving excavations. For example, in the case of ground penetrating radar (GPR), which has a severely limited penetration depth in saturated clay soils when deployed traditionally from the surface, locating the GPR transmitter within a deeply-buried pipe (e.g. a sewer) while the receiver is deployed on the surface has the advantage that the signal only needs to travel through the soil one way, thereby overcoming the severe signal attenuation and depth estimation problems of the traditional surface-down technique (which relies on two-way travel through complex surface structures as well as the soil). The quasi-static field solutions employ both the 50Hz leakage current from high voltage cables as well as the earth's electromagnetic field to illuminate the underground infrastructure. The MTU feasibility study showed that these technologies have considerable potential, especially in detecting difficult-to-find pot-ended cables, optical fibre cables, service connections and other shallow, small diameter services. The third essential technology in the multi-sensor device is acoustics, which works best in saturated clays where GPR is traditionally problematic. Acoustic technology can be deployed to locate services that have traditionally been difficult to discern (such as plastic pipes) by feeding a weak acoustic signal into the pipe wall or its contents from a remote location. The combination of these technologies, together with intelligent data fusion that optimises the combined output, in a multi-sensor device is entirely novel and aims to achieve a 100% location success rate without disturbing the ground (heretofore an impossible task and the 'holy grail' internationally).The above technologies are augmented by detailed research into models of signal transmission and attenuation in soils to enable the technologies to be intelligently attuned to different ground conditions, thereby producing a step-change improvement in the results. These findings will be combined with existing shallow surface soil and made ground 3D maps via collaboration with the British Geological Society (BGS) to prove the concept of creating UK-wide geophysical property maps for the different technologies. This would allow the users of the device to make educated choices of the most suitable operating parameters for the specific ground conditions in any location, as well as providing essential parameters for interpretation of the resulting data and removing uncertainties inherent in the locating accuracy of such technologies. Finally, we will also explore knowledge-guided interpretation, using information obtained from integrated utility databases being generated in the DTI(BERR)-funded project VISTA.

Globally, one in four cities is facing water stress, and the projected demand for water in 2050 is set to increase by 55%. These are significant and difficult problems to overcome, however this also provides huge opportunity for us to reconsider how our water systems are built, operated and governed. Placing an inspirational student experience at the centre of our delivery model, the Water Resilience for Infrastructure and Cities (WRIC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) will nurture a new generation of research leaders to provide the multi-disciplinary, disruptive thinking to enhance the resilience of new and existing water infrastructure. In this context the WRIC CDT will seek to improve the resilience of water infrastructure which conveys and treats water and wastewater as well as the impacts of water on other infrastructure systems which provide vital public services in urban environments. The need for the CDT is simple: Water infrastructure is fundamental to our society and economy in providing benefit from water as a vital resource and in managing risks from water hazards, such as wastewater, floods, droughts, and environmental pollution. Recent water infrastructure failures caused by climate change have provided strong reminders of our need to manage these assets against the forces of nature. The need for resilient water systems has never been greater and more recognised in the context of our industrial infrastructure networks and facilities for water supply, wastewater treatment and urban drainage. Similarly, safeguarding critical infrastructure in key sectors such as transport, energy and waste from the impacts of water has never been more important. Combined, resilience in these systems is vitally important for public health and safety. Industry, regulators and government all recognise the huge skills gap. Therefore there is an imperative need for highly skilled graduates who can transcend disciplines and deliver innovative solutions to contemporary water infrastructure challenges. Centred around unique and world leading water infrastructure facilities, and building on an internationally renowned research consortium (Cranfield University, The University of Sheffield and Newcastle University), this CDT will produce scientists and engineers to deliver the innovative and disruptive thinking for a resilient water infrastructure future. This will be achieved through delivery of an inspirational and relevant and end user-led training programme for researchers. The CDT will be delivered in cohorts, with deeply embedded horizontal and vertical training and integration within, and between, cohorts to provide a common learning and skills development environment. Enhanced training will be spread across the consortium, using integrated delivery, bespoke training and giving students a set of unique experiences and skills. Our partners are drawn from a range of leading sector and professional organisations and have been selected to provide targeted contributions and added value to the CDT. Together we have worked with our project partners to co-create the strategic vision for WRIC, particularly with respect to the training needs and challenges to be addressed for development of resilience engineers. Their commitment is evidenced by significant financial backing with direct (>£2.4million) and indirect (>£1.6million) monetary contributions, agreement to sit on advisory boards, access to facilities and data, and contributions on our taught programme.

The water that you drink and use to flush the toilet all needs to be treated to provide everyone with safe drinking water and to protect the environment. However, this treatment uses a large amount of energy (8,000 GWh) each year. This is equivalent to you running about 100 million tumble driers non-stop for a year.The energy that is used for water and wastewater treatment comes from non-renewable fossil fuel energy resources such as coal, oil and gas. Furthermore, when they are used they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which contributes to global warming. Therefore, if the amount of energy that is used to treat your drinking water can be reduced then less non-renewable energy resources will be used up and less carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere. In our proposal we intend to establish a network of people to develop research ideas to reduce energy use in water and wastewater treament. Some of the projects we will be looking at will include developing new treatment processes which use less energy. We will also examine increasing the production of more biogas. Biogas is produced during wastewater treatment and can be used to supply energy instead of using fossil fuels. We also intend to develop a web site and stage a number of meetings in the UK so that good ideas regarding energy use can be passed to others. The people that are going to be in the network include all the major water companies like Thames, Severn Trent, Yorkshire, Northumbrian, Anglian and United Utilities, government orgnisations like the Environment Agency and other Universities namely Imperial College, Strathcylde, Birmingham, Warwick and Edinburgh. They all have particular expertise in either water or wastewater treatment processes or in energy conservation and renewable energy.