Plastic particles with a size between 1 micron and 5 mm, so-called microplastics, have become an enormous global issue for the aquatic ecosystem and may affect human well-being through the food chain. Various hygiene products such as body wash, shampoo, and toothpaste use microbeads made of either polystyrene, polypropylene, or polyethylene and these microbeads are found to be accumulated in various ecosystems including rivers, lakes, and oceans. A study reported that microbeads found in bottled water have typical sizes between 1 micron and 5 microns. To monitor microplastics quantitatively and qualitatively in the aquatic ecosystem, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy have been used to examine the microplastic specimens. However, liquid specimens containing microplastics often need to go through a density separation step as a pre-treatment before the examination. During the density separation process, microplastics are extracted from the liquid sample by letting microplastics float in the solution with a higher density than microplastics. This process often takes 5 hrs to up to 1 day and makes the detection of microplastics using FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy a labour-intensive and time-consuming job. Limitations on examination time and particle size in existing microplastic detection methods make developing novel in situ and fast monitoring methods for microplastics in aquatic ecosystems imperative. On the other hand, THz biosensing applications operating in the frequency range of 0.1 - 10 THz have been intensively investigated in the last couple of decades to develop novel biosensors owing to unique properties such as non-contact, non-destructive, and label-free detection. However, it has been reported that the low scattering cross-section between the samples and the THz waves can lead to low responsivity in the THz spectrum particularly when the sample size is relatively small compared to the wavelength of the THz waves. This low responsivity in the THz spectrum can be overcome and enhanced by introducing the THz metasurface. THz metasurface has an inductive-capacitive resonance at a specific frequency as it has a capacitive gap and an inductive ring in its geometry. The resonant frequency is highly sensitive to the dielectric environment change near the capacitive gap and hence it has been receiving great attention as a promising sensor platform. THz metasurface also offers an ideal platform to detect micron scale target particles (e.g. microbeads) as the THz metasurface with a few microns gap width provides optimised sensitivity. It is noteworthy that the geometrical parameters of the THz metasurface such as gap width and the length of the side arm can be easily controlled to optimise the sensitivity depending on the size of the target particles. The vision of this proposal is to realise novel microplastic sensors based on THz metasurface that can monitor microplastic particles in aquatic ecosystems using free-space/on-chip THz spectroscopy. This will lead to the design of optimised THz metasurface and meta-atoms, through fundamental experiments and simulation work, and ultimately the development of on-site, fast, sensitive, and selective microplastic sensors working in aqueous environments. Also, the development of on-chip THz microplastic sensors will greatly push the sensitivity for monitoring microplastics in aquatic environments beyond the current state-of-the-art technology by achieving in-situ single microplastic particle detection.

Water companies across the UK (and world) regularly inspect their sewers to prioritise maintenance and ensure the effective operation of their network. Failure to do so can result in incidents, including the discharge of untreated sewage to the environment, pipe collapse or even the formation of sewer blocking fatbergs. The importance of minimising these events is reinforced by the UKWIR objective to achieve zero uncontrolled sewer discharges by 2050. In most cases these occurrences are prevented using CCTV surveying and resolved with an early intervention. However, surveys are time consuming and expensive. Moreover, these reports are often inconsistent and inaccurate, largely due to human error and the subjective nature of fault codes. This project aims to augment the existing annotation and reporting process, with the overall ambition of fully automating the full CCTV surveying process. This proposed combination of AI and robotics will revolutionise sewer surveying and maintenance, improving the speed accuracy and efficiency of the entire practice. In turn this should result in the completion of more surveys and a much higher chance of pre-empting sewer failure. Currently SWW and the UoE are completing a KTP project, to internally implement the prototype fault detection method, investigated during the preceding PhD. The two-year partnership (due to complete in November 2020), has developed and trained the detection system on SWW's archive of CCTV footage and implementing this as a decision support tool. This is capable of highlighting faults and estimating their general type from recorded CCTV footage; extremely useful for the quick analysis of previously unused video that lacks annotation. Alongside technical developments, the project has built a network of collaborators (including iTouch and the WRc), whilst being widely publicised at both academic and industry events. Although the KTP has achieved its goal of bringing a functional tool to SWW, it is clear that the technology has potential for so much more, driving up efficiency and accuracy over current practices. The three key goals of the project are: (1) Develop the annotation capabilities of the technology to achieve the full standards outlined in the MSCC. (2) Implement the developed software so as to assist and perform live reporting. (3) Record and annotate previously unreported pipe features. The proposed project offers the opportunity to not only develop this research into a fully flourished technology for both UK and international use, but provides the resources and foundations for future image processing and machine learning research within SWW and the water industry as a whole. This research would continue to contribute solutions to national and global initiatives, aligning with the UN sustainable development goal ('protecting important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity'), UKWIR's Big Questions ('How do we achieve zero uncontrolled discharges from sewers by 2050?') and the UK industrial Strategy ('Increase sector productivity utilising AI'). Whether this takes the form of future visual inspection techniques or automation and support of other operational functions, the work would continue to drive efficiencies and improve performance using cutting edge computer science techniques.

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.