Adapting Wastewater Infrastructure to Climate Change

Climate change is increasing rainfall amounts, changing patterns, and making storm events more intense and frequent. How will this affect wastewater infrastructure design and performance, especially its collection and treatment functions?

The WSP article shows how climate change leads to climate variability, such as increasing land surface and ocean temperatures and the decline in Arctic ice. These changes affect the atmosphere’s moisture levels and alter the water cycle, creating new precipitation patterns and resulting in wetter winters, more rain than snow, or doubling the number of extreme rainfall events by 2050.

The article says the integration of climate change into wastewater and water infrastructure has yet to happen in local governments. The uncertainty about available data and the capital cost required to adapt infrastructure to handle these changes are some challenges that hinder the swift integration of climate change.

The City of Barrie in Ontario, Canada, took the initiative and created a simple flowchart to help analyze the potential implications of climate change on wastewater infrastructure.  

The article identified climate parameters for each climate variable, such as precipitation, temperature, and wind, that can affect water and wastewater infrastructure.

Climate parameters refer to the annual and monthly measurements of each climate variable. Based on data collected from climate parameters and climate models, cities can produce specific climate projections that will serve as the basis for infrastructure design.

As infrastructure is designed to have a service life of 100 years, it is critical for engineering professionals to integrate climate change effects into their designs.

To do this is not simple but requires skills in making decisions under uncertainty, as well as cost-benefit and risk analysis. The article says municipalities can improve infrastructure resilience when they integrate climate change and future changes.

To read the entire article, click the link below.