Reducing water leakage through the development of high resolution soil maps

A vast amount of clean water is lost from the water supply network each year. Aging pipes often fail as a result of soil corrosivity, or the seasonal shrink-swell cycle of clay soils. Soil spatial distribution is complex and existing soil maps1, while useful, do not provide sufficient detail to identify vulnerable water network segments for upgrade. You will address these problem through delivering the three components of this PhD:

You will make new, detailed soil hazard maps, predicting soil corrosivity and shrink-swell potential at 50 m resolution.

You will develop enhanced pipe failure models which predict where and when pipes will fail on the basis of soil, weather and infrastructure parameters. You will advise Anglian Water on which pipes to upgrade to reduce leakage, energy use and customer interruptions.

Through your work developing and using high resolution predictive soil maps and burst models, water companies will be able to better identify, and upgrade, vulnerable parts of their networks. The many resulting benefits from your work will include a reduction in leakage, reduction in energy use and reduction in interruptions to customer supplies.