Water System Resilience (ARCC-Water)
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Civil Environmental and Geomatic Eng
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- CH2M HILL (Collaboration)
- Atkins (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
- Cornell University (Collaboration)
- Stockholm Environment Institute (Project Partner)
- Natural England (Project Partner)
- Anglian Water Services (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Essex and Suffolk Water (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- World Wide Fund for Nature WWF (UK) (Project Partner)
- RAND Corporation (Project Partner)
- Affinity Water (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Greater London Authority (Project Partner)
- Waterwise (Project Partner)
- Ofwat (Project Partner)
- Environment Agency (Project Partner)
- Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Project Partner)
- Servelec Technologies (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- UK Water Industry Research (Project Partner)
- AquaTerra (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Erfani T
(2021)
Adaptive water resource planning using decision-rules
in Advances in Water Resources
Pachos K
(2022)
Trade-off informed adaptive and robust real options water resources planning
in Advances in Water Resources
Tomlinson J
(2020)
A water resource simulator in Python
in Environmental Modelling & Software
Marzano R
(2018)
Determinants of the price response to residential water tariffs: Meta-analysis and beyond
in Environmental Modelling & Software
Matrosov E
(2011)
A computationally efficient open-source water resource system simulator - Application to London and the Thames Basin
in Environmental Modelling & Software
Harou J
(2010)
The Evolution of Water Resource Planning and Decision Making
in European Review of Agricultural Economics
Huskova I
(2016)
Screening robust water infrastructure investments and their trade-offs under global change: A London example
in Global Environmental Change
Ricalde I
(2022)
Assessing tradeoffs in the design of climate change adaptation strategies for water utilities in Chile.
in Journal of environmental management
Matrosov E
(2015)
Many-objective optimization and visual analytics reveal key trade-offs for London's water supply
in Journal of Hydrology
Matrosov E
(2013)
Robust Decision Making and Info-Gap Decision Theory for water resource system planning
in Journal of Hydrology
| Description | We developed methods to plan water resource systems that took into account uncertainties and non-economic metrics of performance. Here are two prominent examples of where the research was published in top journals and had policy impact as each paper involves industry representatives: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169415008719 and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378016304216 |
| Exploitation Route | The Environment Agency and Ofwat (English water regulators) are changing the way they regulate water companies partially in response to our work, and our influence. The findings of the ARCC project have influenced how we set up the Water Resources of the South East and Water Resources East projects and also how certain water companies (Thames Water, Anglian Water) conduct water planning. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://wrse.org.uk/ |
| Description | Currently England is moving away from an economics-only planning framework for deciding water supply and water resource infrastructure water investments. In this project we compared the economics only approach to a multi-criteria one, backed by integrated engineering models which look at many factors of engineered, environmental and economic performance. This work has influenced the water regulators in England (Environment Agency, Ofwat); the guidelines for the 2019 water plans will strongly be changed as a response to our work and the wider community moving towards more sophisticated planning under uncertainty approaches for water - not only financial/economic. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2009 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Invitation to 2017 and 2018 events to shape Environmetn Agency future water resource management plan guidelines |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Julien was invited to present at two Environment Agency London events on the reform of uk water resources planning in December 2017 and March 2018. Julien is broadly credited with having changed English water planning from a least cost approach to a multi-criteria one. Julien's group has been working with the Water Resources of the South East (WRSE) and Water Resources East (WRE) consortia as lead academic decision-making analytics contractor since 2009 and 2013 respectively. Both groups are using models and/or approaches designed by his research group. These consortia of water companies and regulators make regional strategic decisions on water infrastructure investments worth billions of pounds of the public's money in each 5-year planning period. Through these projects Julien has transformed how water companies use simulation and optimisation tools to select and design billions pound complex infrastructure constellations. The change in how UK water companies select and justify investments has and will lead to a reduction in the cost of water infrastructure and increased levels of service (reliability, resilience, and environmental quality). |
| Description | J Harou presented to Environment Agency senior water team |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Prof. J Harou was asked to give evidence to the senior Environment Agency panel about new approaches to planning water resource investments for England. This will contribute to moving beyond the current approaches used by water companies which only consider the costs of the different supply alternatives. |
| URL | http://wrse.org.uk/ |
| Description | Prof. Harou in UKWIR group writing UK water planning guidelines with water companies and regulators |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | Prof. Harou is part of the Atkins led UKWIR (UK Water Industry Research) team writing the Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) 2019 METHODS - DECISION MAKING PROCESS: GUIDANCE document. This 2016 report describes how UK water companies can use state of the art Decision-making under uncertainty methods to better plan their water supply investments. This will mean UK consumers get more reliable better quality water for cheaper. |
| URL | http://www.ukwir.org |
| Description | System scale design of hydropower systems |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Impact | Better investment in new dams, better design of hydropower systems at international scale. |
| URL | https://global.nature.org/content/power-of-rivers |
| Description | Anglian Water industrial research funding |
| Amount | £220,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Anglian Water Services |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | EU FP7 |
| Amount | £291,232 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 01/2013 |
| End | 01/2017 |
| Description | Global Challenge Research Fund - Growing Research Capability to Meet the Challenges Faced by Developing Countries |
| Amount | £9,846,864 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/P011373/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | IAA-EPSRC Concept and Feasibility Scheme (University of Manchester) |
| Amount | £43,751 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2015 |
| End | 10/2015 |
| Description | IAA-EPSRC Secondment with Anglian Water Services |
| Amount | £104,680 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2015 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | International Climate INitiative |
| Amount | £477,781 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | WISE-UP project |
| Organisation | Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 09/2013 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Description | Thames Water industrial research funding |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Thames Water Utilities Limited |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | Water Resources of East Anglia project |
| Amount | £263,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Anglian Water Services |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Title | Efficient and Robust Decision Making - applied to UK water planning |
| Description | This approach combines robust decision making and multicriteria search to help infrastructure planners select infrastructure investments under an uncertain future. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This approach to planning is being used by several water companies to plan their water systems and justify choice of investments to regulators. |
| Title | Pywr (open source water management model) with Atkins |
| Description | Pywr (on Github) - collaboration with Atkins Llimited, an open-source water resource system simulation model |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Building models of between 7 and 12 water company areas with water company staff to enable them to efficiently plan their infrastructure systems. |
| URL | https://github.com/pywr/pywr |
| Description | Cornell University |
| Organisation | Cornell University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Following the ARCC-Water project we have established a long-term relationship with Prof. Patrick Reed at Cornell University in NY, USA. This has led to the following publication: Matrosov, E.S, Huskova, I, Kasprzyk, J.R, Harou, J J, Lambert, C, Reed, P.M. Many-objective optimization and visual analytics reveal key trade-offs for London's water supply. Journal of Hydrology. 2015; DOI:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.003 |
| Collaborator Contribution | Advisory |
| Impact | Matrosov, E.S, Huskova, I, Kasprzyk, J.R, Harou, J J, Lambert, C, Reed, P.M. Many-objective optimization and visual analytics reveal key trade-offs for London's water supply. Journal of Hydrology. 2015; DOI:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.003 |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Memorandum of Understanding with Atkins UK (Water group) |
| Organisation | WS Atkins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Atkins has funded a PhD student in our group and we have signed a memorandum of understanding related to the development of an open-source water resources simulation model named pywr which is to be shared and improved by researchers, consultants, water industry and government specialists. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They funded a very bright student, we are building water models for UK water utilities, building new open source software https://github.com/pywr/pywr |
| Impact | https://github.com/pywr/pywr |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Memorandum of Understanding with Halcrow-CH2M |
| Organisation | CH2M HILL |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Halcrow and Prof. Harou's group at the Univerity of Manchester have joined forces in building a Innovate UK-funded (2013 TSB water scarcity competition) joint venture www.hydraplatform.org, an open-source software platform for modelling engineered - natural resource system networks and www.hydraappsotre.com, an app store for Hydra compatible models, and www.hydramodeller.com, a commercial user-interface for Hydra. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They designed the websites and the Hydra Modeller user interface. |
| Impact | This is a new category of civil engineering product/service, a model platform, where users can link several models to one data management system. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Title | Hydra - an open software platform for managing networked resources (water, energy, transport, etc.) |
| Description | Platform that enables data management for large scale resource networks. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | May be adopted by water companies and resource management agencies world wide |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104538 |
| Description | February 14-15 Resilient Water Decisions Workshop at The World Bank, Washington DC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | An international group of experts was brought together to advise the World Bank on how to identify and support resilient water managment and planning activities and investments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/10/21/drmhubtokyo-knowledge-program-resilient-water-su... |
| Description | Keynote lecture at the EuroHPC Summit Week 2019 - PRACEdays19 international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This was a large 300 person+ conference about scientific computer; i delivered a plenary keynote for 30 minutes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://primeurmagazine.com/weekly/AE-PR-06-19-39.html |
| Description | National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Gave a talk at the NIC on 'Designing and assessing infrastructure system interventions with stakeholders' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | September 21, 2018, 'Enabling a step-change in UK water planning with open-source tools' Workshop, London, UCL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Open event attended by nearly 50 participants detailing our research's group suite of open-source water resources simulation and data management software |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk given at Environment Agency event: WRMP24- Setting the Direction |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | WRMP24: Setting the Direction Wednesday 29th November 2017 12:30 - 15:30 Venue: Broadway House Conference Centre, Tothill St, London, SW1H 9NQ Background: The prospect of droughts worse than previously seen, a changing climate and population growth all present significant challenges to security of supply. We must face these challenges and do so in a sustainable manner that doesn't put the environment at risk. Water resources management plans have already evolved in some ways to meet these challenges and now is the right time to enhance the work we have done for WRMP19 so that we are ready for WRMP24 and for an uncertain future. We welcome you to this round table discussion to explore our direction of travel for WRMP24. We intend to use the outputs of the day to create a set of principles by which we will work towards WRMP24 guiding the necessary research and development together with the government, fellow regulators, water industry and partners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | World Bank - Resilient Water Decisions talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The World Bank Office of the Chief Economist (GGSCE), Sustainable Development Vice Presidency Global Water Practice (GWAGP) Korea Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF) WORKSHOP February 14th and 15th, 2018 in Washington, D.C., USA 1. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE The purpose of the workshop is to share the experiences of the World Bank and similar water management and development organizations in dealing with climate and other uncertainties towards resilient water-related investments. The challenges and gaps in terms of practices, governance, finance, and other key factors being faced in the practice of decision making for planning, design and operation of water-related projects will be discussed. The workshop will also provide an opportunity to learn from practitioners and members of the academic and consulting worlds about the latest advances in this field, including how to integrate existing and new tools within this framework and how best to advance and mainstream these approaches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |