Francesco Fatone

This study concerns the assessment and comparison of several scenarios for minimizing the hydraulic and environmental impact of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in the coastal city of Cupra Marittima (AP) in Italy, managed by CIIP S.p.A. The quantity and the quality of the water flowing in the sewerage network were analyzed using SWMM 5.2.0 software, calibrated for the dry and rainfall periods on the basis of a specific measurement campaign. The simulations led to the identification of the most critical spills in terms of flow rate and selected pollutant loads and to understanding their contribution to the deterioration of the coastal bathing water quality. On the basis of the simulations, possible solutions to mitigate the CSO impact on the receiving water body were tested and compared with each other in order to identify the optimal solution for the CSO control.

An extensive methodology for analyzing the impact of catchment and sewer network retention on drainage system operating conditions during hydraulic overloading is presented. To evaluate the performance of the sewer system and identify the need for repair actions, logistic regression models were...

This work focused on the verification of the electrical parameters and the durability of side connectors installed in glass–glass photovoltaic modules. Ensuring the safe use of photovoltaic modules is achieved, among others, by using electrical connectors connecting the PV cell circuit inside the laminate with an external electric cable. In most of the cases for standard PV modules, the electrical connector in the form of a junction box is attached from the back side of the PV module. The junction box is glued to the module surface with silicone where the busbars were previously brought out of the laminate through specially prepared holes. An alternative method is to place connectors on the edge of the module, laminating part of it. In such a case, the specially prepared “wings” of the connector are tightly and permanently connected using laminating foil, between two glass panes protecting against an electrical breakdown. Additionally, this approach eliminates the process of preparing holes on the back side of the module, which is especially complicated and time-consuming in the case of glass–glass modules. Moreover, side connectors are desirable in BIPV applications because they allow for a more flexible design of installations on façades and walls of buildings. A series of samples were prepared in the form of PV G-G modules with side connectors, which were then subjected to testing the connectors for the influence of environmental conditions. All samples were characterized before and after the effect of environmental conditions according to PN-EN-61215-2 standards. Insulation resistance tests were performed in dry and wet conditions, ensuring full contact of the tested sample with water. For all modules, before being placed in the climatic chamber, the resistance values were far above the minimum value required by the standards, allowing the module to be safely used. For the dry tests, the resistance values were in the range of GΩ, while for the wet tests, the obtained values were in the range of MΩ. In further work, the modules were subjected to environmental influences in accordance with MQT-11, MQT-12, and MQT-13 and then subjected to electrical measurements again. A simulation of the impact of changing climatic conditions on the module test showed that the insulation resistance value is reduced by an order of magnitude for both the dry and wet tests. Additionally, one can observe visual changes where the lamination foil is in contact with the connector. The measurements carried out in this work show the potential of side connectors and their advantage over rear junction boxes, but also the technological challenges that need to be overcome.

The application of methods using graphs to model a variety of engineering issues has been known for several decades, but the application of graph algorithms to model the urban water management issues is a completely new approach. The article reviews the scientific literature on integrated urban...

Microplastic particles are of concern to aquatic environments because their size enables them to be easily ingested by animals and they may become vectors of potentially harmful chemicals. This study focused on understanding the impact of plastic size and plastic types on adsorption and adsorption kinetics of commonly found contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). We exposed macro- and micro-sized polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to six CECs: diclofenac (DCF), atenolol (ATN), ibuprofen (IBU), 4-acetamidophenol (ACE), bisphenol A (BPA), and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT). Our results showed that the pseudo-first order model described the adsorption kinetics better than the pseudo-second order model. The rate of adsorption ACE onto macro-PS was the fastest rate of adsorption for all CECs and microplastics evaluated. Generally, the mass fraction of CECs sorbed at equilibrium did not depend on the size of the plastic and chemical hydrophobicity. With a relatively low K_ow among the CECs studied here, ACE had the most mass fraction sorbed onto all the plastics in this study. DCF was also consistently sorbed onto all the plastics. The mechanism van der Waals interaction may have dominated in all the adsorptions in this study, but π-π interaction could also be a major mechanism in the adsorption of DCF, IBP, and ACE. Fast adsorption of ATN, IBP, and ACE may occur during wastewater treatment, but slow adsorption may still continue in the wastewater effluent. Our study highlights an ecotoxicological concern for plastics being a vector of commonly found CECs that are not highly hydrophobic.

Knowledge of the variability of the hydrograph of outflow from urban catchments is highly important for measurements and evaluation of the operation of sewer networks. Currently, hydrodynamic models are most frequently used for hydrograph modeling. Since a large number of their parameters have to be identified, there may be problems at the calibration stage. Hence, sensitivity analysis is used to limit the number of parameters. However, the current sensitivity analytical methods ignore the effect of the temporal distribution and intensity of precipitation in a rainfall event on the catchment outflow hydrograph. This article presents a methodology of constructing a simulator of catchment outflow hydrograph parameters (volume and maximum flow). For this purpose, uncertainty analytical results obtained with the use of the GLUE (generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation) method were used. A novel analysis of the sensitivity of the hydrodynamic catchment models was also developed, which can be used in the analysis of the operation of stormwater networks and underground infrastructure facilities. Using the logistic regression method, an innovative sensitivity coefficient was proposed to study the impact of the variability of the parameters of the hydrodynamic model depending on the distribution of rainfall, the origin of rainfall (on the Chomicz scale), and the uncertainty of the estimated simulator coefficients on the parameters of the outflow hydrograph. The developed model enables the analysis of the impact of the identified SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) parameters on the runoff hydrograph, taking into account local rainfall conditions, which have not been analyzed thus far. Compared with the currently developed methods, the analyses included the impact of the uncertainty of the identified coefficients in the logistic regression model on the results of the sensitivity coefficient calculation. This aspect has not been taken into account in the sensitivity analytical methods thus far, although this approach evaluates the reliability of the simulation results. The results indicated a considerable influence of rainfall distribution and intensity on the sensitivity factors. The greater the intensity and rainfall were, the lower the impact of the identified hydrodynamic model parameters on the hydrograph parameters. Additionally, the calculations confirmed the significant impact of the uncertainty of the estimated coefficient in the simulator on the sensitivity coefficients. In the context of the sensitivity analysis, the obtained results have a significant effect on the interpretation of the relationships obtained. The approach presented in this study can be widely applied at the model calibration stage and for appropriate selection of hydrographs for identification and validation of model parameters. The results of the calculations obtained in this study indicate the suitability of including the origin of rainfall in the sensitivity analysis and calibration of hydrodynamic models, which results from the different sensitivities of models for normal, heavy, and torrential rain types. In this context, it is necessary to first divide the rainfall data by origin, for which analyses will be performed, including sensitivity analysis and calibration. Considering the obtained results of the calculations, at the stage of identifying the parameters of hydrodynamic models and their validation, precipitation conditions should be included because, for the precipitation caused by heavy rainfall, the values of the sensitivity coefficients were much lower than for torrential ones. Taking into account the values of the sensitivity coefficients obtained, the calibration of the models should not only cover episodes with high rainfall intensity, since this may lead to calculation errors at the stage of applying the model in practice (assessment of the stormwater system operating conditions, design of reservoirs and flow control devices, green infrastructure, etc.).

This paper develops a framework for the identification, assessment and analysis of the water reuse-carbon-energy-food-climatic (WEFC) nexus in an integrated peri-urban wastewater treatment and reuse system. This methodology was applied to the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of Peschiera Borromeo (Milan, Italy) and its peri-urban district to define the most possible affirmations and conflicts following the EU regulations 741/2020. Results of this work showed that transferring the WEFC nexus from theory to practice can realize sustainable resource management in the operating environment by providing a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, overall energy savings, reduction in water stress and optimization of agricultural practices. Particularly, it was found that if the plant configuration is upgraded to reach water quality class C for water reuse, instead of wastewater discharge, energy savings are estimated to reach up to 7.1% and carbon emissions are supposed to be reduced up to 2.7%. In addition, enhancing water quality from class C to class A resulted in increments in energy and carbon footprint of 5.7% and 1.7%, respectively. Nevertheless, higher quality crops can be cultivated with reclaimed water in class A, with bigger economic revenues and high recovery of nutrients (e.g., recovery of 154,450 kg N/y for tomato cultivation).