Urban Water Management
Examined the water resources of Riyadh city by focusing on wastewater management, and precipitation. To do so, a cost-benefit analysis was developed for the usage of wastewater demand for irrigation. Moreover, built a simulation of Riyadh city that predicts places, in which high precipitation would occur to it during a flooding event.
My focus on the project was on utilizing the wastewater within Riyadh city the capital of Saudi Arabia. To do so, I started initially by analyzing the the whole system of supply and demand of water within Riyadh city, please refer to figure 1.
Figure 1: Supply & demand of water within Riyadh city.
The water resources within Riyadh city are desalinated water, groundwater, and reclaimed water ( treated wastewater). Currently 57.4% of the water used is desalinated water. Groundwater (deep ground water and shallow groundwater) constitutes 42.6% of the water used. Almost all of the water resources are diminished by over-use and the increase of the population. However, reclaimed water is known world-wide as the only water source that is actually increasing with the increase of population.
Figure 2: Riyadh's wastewater treatment plants and Riyadh's elevation map.
Currently Riyadh has three main wastewater treatment plants. Due to the elevation map of Riyadh. All of the water treatment plants are located in the south of Riyadh. Because it is far cheaper and easier to build the sewer network. Most of water reuse is for agriculture. However, the main issue is that there's no use of the reclaimed water within the city. Refer to figure 2 to understand the location of the water treatment plants, Riyadh's elevation map. (Riyadh sewage network was analysed as well, but the data has to be requested from the authorised entitiy).
Figure 3: Current reclaimed water demand in each pressure zone.
Our proposed solution, which I worked on was to address opportunities to maximize the reuse of reclaimed water for landscape purposes within the city. The benefits of the project would range from reducing heat islands, reduce urban urban pollution, and to add to beautification of Riyadh city. This alligins with Green Riyadh initiative part of Saudi Arabia 2030 vision.
We started by developing a cost-benefit analysis and for building decenrlised waste water treatment centers. We analyzed the different pressure zones in Riyadh as it is major factor for the sewage system. Please refer to figure 3, in which we analyzed the current reclaimed water demand in each pressure zone.
Figure 4: Water demand within Almorooj district and potential locations.
After that I did a further analysis on one of the pressure zones (Almorooj district). In which, I started by analyzing the current water demand by consumers within the district. By doing so, I can project the amount of wastewater produced within the district. Therefore, I developed the QGIS shape files to represent the water consumption. Then I highlighted potential lands for reclaimed treatment centers. Please refer to figure 4.
Next I used satellite imagery (Landsat 8 and World view 4) to detect the greenfication. Based on the greenery detected I used Riyadh's Development Authority for plantation water needs to calculate the amount of reclaimed water needed for irrigation. Please refer to Figure 5 for greenification satellite imagery.
Figure 5: Greenification satellite imagery. (World view 4)
Finally, a cost benefit analysis was conducted by the team on the system. The team investigated the current state of art technologies within wastewater treatment plants to assure the safety of the surrounding area of the treatment plant and to avoid anything that would disturb the district.
Skills:
Python
QGIS
Optimization
Water Resource Modeling
Building Information Modeliing
