Water companies across the UK (and world) regularly inspect their sewers to prioritise maintenance and ensure the effective operation of their network. Failure to do so can result in incidents, including the discharge of untreated sewage to the environment, pipe collapse or even the formation of sewer blocking fatbergs. The importance of minimising these events is reinforced by the UKWIR objective to achieve zero uncontrolled sewer discharges by 2050. In most cases these occurrences are prevented using CCTV surveying and resolved with an early intervention. However, surveys are time consuming and expensive. Moreover, these reports are often inconsistent and inaccurate, largely due to human error and the subjective nature of fault codes. This project aims to augment the existing annotation and reporting process, with the overall ambition of fully automating the full CCTV surveying process. This proposed combination of AI and robotics will revolutionise sewer surveying and maintenance, improving the speed accuracy and efficiency of the entire practice. In turn this should result in the completion of more surveys and a much higher chance of pre-empting sewer failure. Currently SWW and the UoE are completing a KTP project, to internally implement the prototype fault detection method, investigated during the preceding PhD. The two-year partnership (due to complete in November 2020), has developed and trained the detection system on SWW's archive of CCTV footage and implementing this as a decision support tool. This is capable of highlighting faults and estimating their general type from recorded CCTV footage; extremely useful for the quick analysis of previously unused video that lacks annotation. Alongside technical developments, the project has built a network of collaborators (including iTouch and the WRc), whilst being widely publicised at both academic and industry events. Although the KTP has achieved its goal of bringing a functional tool to SWW, it is clear that the technology has potential for so much more, driving up efficiency and accuracy over current practices. The three key goals of the project are: (1) Develop the annotation capabilities of the technology to achieve the full standards outlined in the MSCC. (2) Implement the developed software so as to assist and perform live reporting. (3) Record and annotate previously unreported pipe features. The proposed project offers the opportunity to not only develop this research into a fully flourished technology for both UK and international use, but provides the resources and foundations for future image processing and machine learning research within SWW and the water industry as a whole. This research would continue to contribute solutions to national and global initiatives, aligning with the UN sustainable development goal ('protecting important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity'), UKWIR's Big Questions ('How do we achieve zero uncontrolled discharges from sewers by 2050?') and the UK industrial Strategy ('Increase sector productivity utilising AI'). Whether this takes the form of future visual inspection techniques or automation and support of other operational functions, the work would continue to drive efficiencies and improve performance using cutting edge computer science techniques.

The uplands of Exmoor National Park receive a considerable proportion of the annual rainfall that supplies water to >500,000 consumers in the River Exe catchment. This area also contains large tracts of degraded peatland that were damaged by drainage and peat cutting in the 19th and 20th centuries. South West Water plc manage the water resources of the Exe Catchment and are investing in mire restoration for the purpose of improving the quality and quantity of water supplies. Amongst the numerous benefits of mire rewetting is the potential to alter the balance of trace gas exchange with the atmosphere to cause a net reduction in Global Warming Potential (GWP). Landowners at present do not receive financial reward for converting degraded moorland back to a natural wet state. They receive no monetary benefit for improvements in water quality or quantity, nor are they paid for enhancing rates of soil carbon sequestration or a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The motivation for this study is South West Water plc's need to quantify net changes in GWP and improvements in water quantity and quality due to rewetting of upland mires for the purpose of securing funds to reward landowners that make areas of degraded peatland available for restoration. A project operated by the Environment Agency and Exeter University (and funded by South West Water plc) is underway to address the water supply and quality questions. The Bristol Open CASE PhD student will study cycling of the infrared absorbing gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the same two headwater catchments that have been instrumented for the water study. The aim of this project is to quantify atmospheric and fluvial fluxes of these key greenhouse gases before and after ditch-blocking to determine the net impact of mire rewetting on GWP. An important aspect of the study will be to estimate errors and uncertainties in the flux data, more specifically, the timeline for establishing biogeochemical equilibrium in the soils after rewetting and the range of inter-annual variation in pre-restoration baseline fluxes. The former issue will be addressed using changes in the stable isotope composition of methane which varies with trophic and aeration status in peatlands and can be used to monitor the restoration of soil biogeochemical function. During the study, flux measurements will be made at stations in adjacent unrestored catchments to assess inter-annual variability in pre-restoration baseline fluxes because it will be possible to measure only one year of surface and fluvial fluxes before ditch-blocking begins in the test catchments. The PhD student will work with staff at South West Water plc to establish a monetary value (based upon trading of CO2 equivalents) for net changes in GWP. Pending the final outcomes of this study, the information may be used by the CASE Partner to negotiate monetary rewards for landowners in the 2015-2020 water price limits set by the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). The motivation is to establish a long-term system of incentives that will encourage more landowners to allow areas of degraded peatland to be restored for the wider benefit of society.

FIWARE is a smart solution platform, funded by the EC (2011-16) as a major flagship PPP, to support SMEs and developers in creating the next generation of internet services, as the main ecosystem for Smart City initiatives for cross-domain data exchange/cooperation and for the NGI initiative. So far little progress has been made on developing specific water-related applications using FIWARE, due to fragmentation of the water sector, restrained by licensed platforms and lagging behind other sectors (e.g. telecommunications) regarding interoperability, standardisation, cross-domain cooperation and data exchange. Fiware4Water intends to link the water sector to FIWARE by demonstrating its capabilities and the potential of its interoperable and standardised interfaces for both water sector end-users (cities, water utilities, water authorities, citizens and consumers), and solution providers (private utilities, SMEs, developers). Specifically we will demonstrate it is non-intrusive and integrates well with legacy systems. In addition to building modular applications using FIWARE and open API architecture for the real time management of water systems, Fiware4Water also builds upon distributed intelligence and low level analytics (smart meters, advanced water quality sensors) to increase the economic (improved performance) and societal (interaction with the users, con-consensus) efficiency of water systems and social acceptability of digital water, by adopting a 2-Tier approach: (a) building and demonstrating four Demo Cases as complementary and exemplary paradigms across the water value chain (Tier#1); (b) promoting an EU and global network of followers, for digital water and FIWARE (cities, municipalities, water authorities, citizens, SMEs, developers) with three complementary Demo Networks (Tier#2). The scope is to create the Fiware4Water ecosystem, demonstrating its technical, social and business innovative potential at a global level, boosting innovation for water.

This research will directly benefit society in the UK and abroad by increasing the effectiveness of water companies. The aim of the fellowship is to establish new research avenues for innovation in the field of urban water engineering and to bring novel practical solutions to the water-related challenges, in particular climate change, existing in the UK and worldwide. The proposal addresses the EPSRC/LWEC fundamental question "How can our cities, their hinterlands, linking infrastructure, rural surround and the regions they are in, be transformed to be resilient, sustainable, more economically viable and generally better places to live?". To answer this challenging question the research will investigate the impact of environmental change on drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) with the aim of generating new knowledge and tools that will improve the way drinking water is supplied in our cities, in a sustainable and economically viable way. As a consequence of climate change water sources used for water supply will be more contaminated and limited, the temperature of the water will increase and long-term changes in water demand will affect pipe hydraulics. All these changes will significantly affect biological and physico-chemical processes taking place in DWDS and will force water companies to modify the way they deliver water via DWDS. The fellowship will support the essential first steps in a new research line where my aim is to integrate microbiology, genetics and water engineering to explore in detail hidden aspects of DWDS in order to develop a whole system understanding. At present, the monitoring strategies for drinking water involve detecting microorganisms in water from taps using "old-fashioned" culture methods. However, the microbial composition of water is not representative of the biofilms (microbial assemblages) attached to pipes and culture-dependent methods underestimate the real microbial diversity in DWDS. Biofilms have great importance since they contain most of the microbial biomass in DWDS and they influence water quality and safety by, for example, hosting pathogens, promoting pipe corrosion and changes in water taste and colour. Consequently, there is an urgent need for research on how microorganisms will respond to environmental change within DWDS and how this will impact on DWDS performance and on drinking water safety and quality. Since DWDS are not sterile (i.e. completely free from microorganisms), research is also needed to identify which parameters support the presence of "friendly microorganisms" capable of maintaining the good performance of DWDS but also discouraging harmful microorganisms from surviving in the pipes. To answer these questions the research will assess different climate change situations in DWDS tested under controlled laboratory conditions including: increase in water temperature, increase in water nitrogen and phosphorus and extreme hydraulic fluctuations. Analysis of DNA/RNA from experimental samples will be used to uncover the link between microbial diversity (who is there?) and function (what are they doing?), and will help to identify genes involved in a range of processes including resistance to disinfection and pathogenic potential. Biological and environmental data will be integrated using hydro/bioinformatic methods with the ultimate aim of developing novel monitoring and management tools: 1) a new risk assessment framework; and 2) Biological Early Warning Systems (BEWS). The efficiency of these tools will be tested using real data from UK water companies and European partners. Dissemination of findings to industry, academics and the general public will be supported by the Pennine Water Group and through the Sheffield Water Centre. The fellowship will facilitate the development of my career as a world leader in urban water research by creating a new platform for innovation in molecular microbiology and hydraulic engineering.

Complex microbial communities underlie natural processes such as global chemical cycles and digestion in higher animals, and are routinely exploited for industrial scale synthesis, waste treatment and fermentation. Our basic understanding of the structures, stabilities and functions of such communities is limited, leading to the declaration of their study as the next frontier in microbial ecology, microbiology, and synthetic biology. Focusing on biomethane producing microbial communities (BMCs), we will undertake a two-tiered approach of optimising natural communities and designing synthetic communities with a focus on achieving robust, high-yield biomethane production. Within this biotechnological framework, our proposal will address several fundamental scientific questions on the link between the structure and function of microbial communities. To ensure success in this challenging project, we assembled the strongest possible interdisciplinary research team that combines significant practical and scientific expertise in microbial ecology and evolution, systems modelling, molecular microbiology, bioengineering, genomics, and synthetic biology. We are confident that this team will deliver and that this project will result in significant impact in the scientific and industrial domains. Through our work, described in detail below, we will; significantly improve the current understanding of the structure-function relation in microbial communities, provide the scientific community with a systematic, temporal genomics and transcriptomics dataset on complex microbial communities, develop novel computational tools for microbial community (re)design, and experimentally build synthetic BMCs that will act as model ecosystems in different research fields. These scientific developments, in turn, will accumulate in the development of more sustainable bioenergy solutions for the UK economy by optimising the communities underlying biomethane production. This will help to drive the efficiency of biomethane as an alternative fuel source.