Re-Inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure

Our research program focuses on fundamental investigations and applied research to create a suite of successful water management options and decision-making tools. We study engineered and natural systems and the way in which they can be effectively integrated into the portfolio of urban water resources.
Some specific aims of this research are:
Incorporating resource recovery and energy production into engineered water systems
Engineering natural systems to improve water quantity, water quality, and habitat
Overcoming impediments to adopting new urban water management strategies
Developing technologies in concert with companies involved in the Center’s program
Providing improved decision-making tools to decision makers
Our fundamental research on engineered and natural systems informs our water supply portfolio testbeds, which in turn will help us reinvent urban water systems.
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RESEARCH THRUSTS
Urban Systems Integration and Institutions
The U Thrust is focused on identifying and overcoming the barriers to implementation and diffusion of technologies developed by ReNUWIt researchers in the E Thrust and N Thrust as well as the development of promising water management technologies. We conduct research on decision support techniques for utility, municipal and regional planners, and analyze the potential legal, institutional, economic, financial, and social barriers to technology diffusion and identify the means to overcome them. In each of these areas, we focus on identifying appropriate decision criteria, assessing optimal degrees of system decentralization under various conditions, characterizing risk and uncertainty, assessing economic and financial implications of various technologies, and integrating new technologies into existing water infrastructures and urban landscapes.
U Thrust Research Themes
U1 – Decision support systems for utility planning
U2 – Visioning, assessment, and implementation tools for regional and municipal water planning
U3 – Technology diffusion pathways
Efficient Engineered Systems
Urban water infrastructure includes water and wastewater treatment plants, water distribution systems, and runoff and wastewater collection systems. To enhance the efficiency and resiliency of these systems we are conducting fundamental research in the E Thrust on novel modes of energy recovery and water treatment using membranes, biological treatment processes, and state-of-the-art control technology. Our new approaches are being integrated into pilot and full-scale testbeds and are being evaluated for performance and sustainability.
E Thrust Research Themes
E2 – Energy and resource recovery
E3 – Direct potable reuse
Natural Water Infrastructure Systems
Natural systems like wetlands and streams are already being used as part of water management strategies. In the N Thrust, we are applying rigorous engineering principles to natural systems so they can be more effectively employed in urban water infrastructure. Researchers are studying and quantifying how wetlands and streams improve water quality, ecosystem health, and urban aesthetics; investigating subsurface water storage in urban areas; exploring how natural barriers work to purify wastewater effluent; and developing techniques to harvest urban stormwater runoff for groundwater aquifer recharge.
N Thrust Research Themes
N1 – Unit process wetlands and riparian zones
N2 – Smart managed aquifer recharge technologies (SMART)
N3 – Distributed stormwater treatment unit processes