UK and US engineers to collaborate on global water issues

Five different research teams at UK universities will partner with academics from universities across the US. The UK projects are looking at water treatment and purification, water reuse, storm water management, sustainability of supplies and water infrastructures.

These five projects are supported by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and additional projects are supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA, with a combined funding of around £800,000 to supplement existing grant awards.

Expertise from both countries will be shared at workshops, symposiums, via visits and videoconference calls leading to new robust collaborations and adding value to existing research projects involving 12 UK universities.

‘Clean Water for All’, was announced at the 2013 Global Grand Challenges Summit, where scientists, engineers and policy makers discussed how engineering solutions could solve the world’s most pressing problems by developing international co-operation and frameworks.

Providing clean sustainable supplies of water was identified as a major priority as this global issue has societal, health, and economic implications.

The University of Exeter will collaborate with The University of Utah and The University of Arizona on urban water systems to make them more sustainable and resilient, especially for urban drainage and water resource distribution systems.

The University of Glasgow is exploring new technologies such as synthetic biology, nanomaterial science and bio-electrochemical systems and applying them to water engineering.

In Scotland providing water and wastewater services to remote rural populations using existing infrastructure is chemical and energy intensive.

Similarly half of the world’s population do not live in urban areas. A three day workshop will address challenges of water use in rural communities and put together proposals for further research with US and UK development.

A symposium will be held by The University of Sheffield to explore water reuse in urban areas, and how US and UK expertise can improve solutions for re-using water in both countries.

The University of Oxford are teaming up with The University of Massachusetts and Sandia National Laboratory and will focus on using algorithms to improve methodology for assessing risks to water security, and modelling how resilient piped networks are.

Maxine Perella