Evaluating Rule Based Control for Environmental Impacts in Receiving Waters

<p dir="ltr">This paper shows the result of simple rule-based control strategies for a simulated combined sewer overflow in the Astlingen Storm Water Management Model and a 1D advection dispersion model of a particular configuration of receiving water. Control strategies testing includes singular linear and inverse linear control strategies as well as weighted combination of control strategies using a smooth sigmoid weighting function. Impact based linear controllers have the effect of minimising peak total Kjeldahl nitrogen loading in the receiving water, increasing the combined sewer overflow discharge duration and substantially delaying the peak of the concentration in the receiving water at the cost of an increase in the upstream urban drainage network node depth. Results indicate that the hydraulic model of urban drainage network and a model for the hydrodynamics and pollutant transport of the receiving water are needed for real time control for managing environmental impact in receiving waters from combined sewer overflows.</p><p dir="ltr">This paper was presented at the 21st Computing and Control in the Water Industry Conference (CCWI 2025) at the University of Sheffield (1st - 3rd September 2025).</p>