Applying Real-time Advanced Urban Management to Ensure Bathing Water Quality in Barcelona

The LIFE iBATHWATER is a real-scale demonstration project of a new integrated management system for the urban drainage system focused on bathing water quality. Its application is expected to reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO), reduce pollution and environmental impact in the receiving water bodies and minimise the sanitary risks of bathing areas during and after episodes of intense rainfall. Several technological assets are installed and validated in Barcelona (coastal waters) and Berlin (river water), where the pilot tests are being carried out. To accomplish these challenges, the solution consists of the development of an open platform capable of combining operational online information to forecast bathing water quality. Also, in the field, an innovative online microbial analysis to monitor bathing water quality indicators during rain events is tested. In Barcelona, sewer management strategies have been focused on reducing the CSO and also two numerical models running in real time have been implemented to estimate the evolution of bacteria (E.coli and Enterococci) during and after short-term pollution episodes in bathing waters. The first model computes the combined sewer overflow (CSO) volume spilled from the sewer system to the beaches, and the second one simulates the maritime conditions and the bacterial decay into the sea. Model results are compared with the real measurements, bacteria concentration, to calibrate and validate the system.