The proposed project aims to develop a low-cost and user-friendly system for the non-destructive inspection of waste and water pipes. The project's outcome will fill a gap in the currently employed pipe inspection technology. It is expected that the project will significantly improve the quality of sewer and water pipe inspection providing a stream of images depicting the inside of pipes. Such an improved view of pipe networks will result in great savings for water utilities and contractors. The classification capability of the proposed intelligent processing techniques will be exploited in order to emphasise the location and characteristics of pipe defects in the images and to delimit the defects from undamaged pipe sections, thereby aiding the inspection personnel in their decision making process. The increased measuring performance will lead to an improved repair quality and, thus, to savings in pipe restoration. An important objective of this project is to achieve customer acceptability for the new inspection system and to initiate the commercialisation process.

Urban water systems have never been more strategically important - they are one of the key foundations of society. The reliable provision of safe drinking water and effective drainage and sewerage services is essential to us all. Society has developed an increased awareness of a number of environmental, social and economic issues associated with the provision of water services. Factors considered include the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, water security, flooding, drought, energy use, carbon footprint, environmental damage and impact on human health. These factors, combined with the fact that many of our existing urban water infrastructure systems are complex, old and deteriorating, creates significant new challenges for the water industry into the future. They also create significant new and exciting research challenges that the Pennine Water Group (PWG) at the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford is best placed to address.Historically the international reputation of the PWG has been built on delivering high quality scientific research that addresses the needs of the water industry. This has been achieved by taking a multi-disciplinary approach focused on urban water asset management. Our evolving vision for the future requires a transition to 'Sustainable Integrated Urban Water Systems' that 'move beyond the pipe' to a broader system definition. We propose to progress and deliver our future research at a range of scales and to integrate both man-made infrastructure and natural processes in large catchments within a holistic framework that incorporates technical, institutional, economic and cultural issues. This framework will be underpinned by new and novel scientific and technological advances but will involve the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders. The platform grant renewal will support the transition from a multi-disciplinary to a trans-disciplinary group through fostering new inter-disciplinary research ideas combined with an ever more effective integration with industry and other stakeholders. This vision has 3 key development areas (1) Sustainable integrated systems and water sensitive urban design (2) Development and delivery of new technologies and (3) Implementation and governance.The new platform grant will be led by Prof. Saul with a core academic management team of Biggs, Boxall, Horoshenkov, Sharp and Tait. This team will be responsible for the delivery of the all fundamental science and outputs within the three key areas, but also for the monitoring of expenditure, developing future funding strategy, staff and career development and interactions with external stakeholders. The management group will seek support and guidance from both an Industrial Advisory Panel and an International Scientific Advisory Panel.A major strength of the existing PWG academic staff is their enthusiasm for collaboration and wider engagement across the RCUK disciplines. The new platform grant proposes to include four new academic colleagues, Lerner, Osborn, Beck and Molyneux-Hodgson, who will provide significant add-on technical expertise and with whom we are currently collaborating on funded projects. These staff will enhance the core skills of PWG, within a unique team, that will see significant and enhanced opportunities to stimulate and respond to new cross-discipline research ideas and initiatives. Following our successful existing practice, we will use the platform grant as a flexible resource to provide gap funding to support the future long term careers of our key researchers, to provide opportunities to visit overseas research groups and to present our work at major International Conferences. A point of specific importance is that the platform grant will allow the optimisation of the training, networking and mentoring afforded to all our researchers, and here, special emphasis will be given to the skills set required for a future academic career.

This proposed research is concerned with the current state of buried sewer systems as measured by their remaining safe life. It aims to develop a suite of stochastic models for corrosion effects to be used for the accurate prediction of the remaining safe life of aged and deteriorated sewers. The outputs of the research will enable a step-change improvement in asset management of sewer systems, thereby sharpening the competitive edge of the UK water sector both technologically and economically. The proposed work consists of a number of components: (i) the identification of the most dominant mechanisms of deterioration and the underlying contributing factors for cementitious sewers, (ii) the examination and analysis of the cause/effect relationship of the corrosion process for this group of sewers, (iii) the development of rational and practical models of corrosion effects for this group of sewers, and (iv) the development of a scientifically advanced tool for predicting the remaining safe life of this group of sewers. The models to be developed will be based on corrosion science principles, derived from chemical physical observations through experiments from real world test sites and in laboratory, and validated to real sewers. This approach is in stark contrast to the few existing corrosion models, which are based on empirically data mining and lack of scientific derivation and practical validation. The tool to be developed will be based on advanced time-dependent reliability theory which takes into account not only the uncertainties of various contributing factors but also the time. It is noted that expertise in time-dependent reliability theory is not widely available in the UK and needs to be developed, in particular its application to service life prediction for sewers. The proposed research builds on the success of the PI's previous research on corrosion and its effects on structural deterioration and service life prediction of corrosion affected concrete infrastructure. The outputs of the research will equip engineers, asset managers and operators with a tool to predict and then decide when and where interventions are needed to prevent unexpected failures of sewers so that a risk-informed and cost-minimised management strategy for sewer asset can be achieved. The proposed research has strong support of industry leaders, representing all stakeholders of sewer systems. The 2009 ICE State of The Nation Report Defending Critical Infrastructure identifies system failure as the No.1 threat to UK's infrastructure. This has timely raised the alarm for the urgent need to develop innovative solutions to the better management of the existing but aged and deteriorated infrastructure. In the light of considerable research that has been undertaken on aboveground infrastructure, this threat cannot be more apparent for underground infrastructure, e.g. buried sewers. The situation has been exacerbated due to more unknowns and uncertainties relating to the factors that affect the operation of underground infrastructure: sewer systems in particular, which effectually corroborates the urgent need for assessing the current state of these sewer systems and their remaining safe life.This research will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and skills in the deterioration of cementitious sewers, the modelling of the deterioration and the prediction of the remaining safe life for deteriorated sewers. It will contribute to creating social, economic, environmental and health benefits for the nation. It will also contribute to the UK's international leadership in the optimal management of sewer asset.

The management of water quality in rivers, urban drainage and water supply networks is essential for ecological and human well-being. Predicting the effects of management strategies requires knowledge of the hydrodynamic processes covering spatial scales of a few millimetres (turbulence) to several hundred kilometres (catchments), with a similarly large range of timescales from milliseconds to weeks. Predicting underlying water quality processes and their human and ecological impact is complicated as they are dependent on contaminant concentration. Current water quality modelling methods range from complex three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) models, for short time and small spatial scales, to one-dimensional (1D) time dependent models, critical for economic, fast, easy-to-use applications within highly complex situations in river catchments, water supply and urban drainage systems. Mixing effects in channels and pipes of uniform geometry can be represented with some confidence in highly turbulent, steady flows. However, in the majority of water networks, the standard 1D model predictions fall short because of knowledge gaps due to low turbulence, 3D shapes and unsteady flows. This Fellowship will work to address the knowledge gaps, delivering a step change in the predictive capability of 1D water quality network models. It will achieve this via the strategic leadership of a programme of laboratory and full-scale field measurements, the implementation of system identification techniques and active engagement with primary users. The proposal covers aspects from fundamental research, through applications, to end-user delivery, by providing a new modelling methodology to inform design, appraisal and management decisions made by environmental regulators, engineering consultants and water utilities.

The UK water sector is entering a period of profound change with both public and private sector actors seeking evidence-based responses to a host of emerging global, regional and national challenges which are driven by demographic, climatic, and land use changes as well as regulatory pressures for more efficient delivery of services. Although the UK Water Industry is keen to embrace the challenge and well placed to innovate, it lacks the financial resources to support longer term skills and knowledge generation. A new cadre of engineers is required for the water industry to not only make our society more sustainable and profitable but to develop a new suite of goods and services for a rapidly urbanising world.The EPSRC Industrial Doctorate Centre programme is an ideal mechanism with which to remediate the emerging shortfall in advanced engineering skills within the sector. In particular, the training of next-generation engineering leaders for the sector requires a subtle balance between industrial and academic contributions; calling for a funding mechanism which privileges industrial need but provides for significant academic inputs to training and research. The STREAM initiative draws together (for the first time) five of the UK's leading water research and training groups to secure the future supply of advanced engineering professionals in this area of vital importance to the UK. Led by the Centre for Water Science at Cranfield University, the consortium also draws on expertise from the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, and the University of Exeter. STREAM offers Engineering Doctorate awards through a programme which incorporates; (i) acquisition of advanced technical skills through attendance at masters level training courses, (ii) tuition in the competencies and abilities expected of senior engineers, and (iii) doctoral level research projects. Students spend at least 75% of their time working in industry or on industry specified research problems. Example research topics to be addressed by the scheme's Research Engineers include; delivering drinking water quality and protecting public health; reducing carbon footprint; reducing water demand; improving service resilience and reliability; protecting natural water bodies; reducing sewer flooding, developing and implementing strategies for Integrated Water Management, and delivering new approaches to characterising, communicating and mitigating risk and uncertainty. Ten studentships per year for five years will be offered with each position being sponsored by an industrial partner from the water sector.A series of common attendance events will underpin programme and group identity. These include, (i) an initial three-month programme based at Cranfield University, (ii) an open invitation STREAM symposium and (iii) a Challenge Week to take place each summer including transferrable skills training and guest lectures from leading industrialists and scientists. Outreach activities will extend participation in the programme, pursue collaboration with associated initiatives, promote 'brand awareness' of the EngD qualification, and engage with a wide range of stakeholder groups (including the public) to promote engagement with and understanding of STREAM activities.Strategic direction for the programme will be formulated through an Industry Advisory Board comprising representatives from professional bodies, employers, and regulators. This body will provide strategic guidance informed by sector needs, review the operational aspects of the taught and research components as a quality control, and conduct foresight studies of relevant research areas. A small International Steering Committee will ensure global relevance for the programme. The total cost of the STREAM programme is 10.2m, 4.4m of which is being invested by industry and 5.8m of which is being requested from EPSRC.