Geographic information systems (GIS) provider Esri Ireland has been chosed by Dublin Urban Rivers Life (DURL) project to help prevent preventing circa 13 million litres of polluted wastewater from entering Dublin rivers annually.
DURL is a joint venture between South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils, with funding received from the EU Life Programme. It aims to improve water quality by finding and removing misconnected household appliances that are expelling polluted water into rivers in two catchment areas – River Griffeen Catchment in the South Dublin County Council area, and Carrickmines Stream and Shanganagh River in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area.
Misconnections tend to occur when homes are renovated or extended, and new appliances are installed. Some washing machines, dishwashers, sinks, and toilets can be mistakenly connected to the rainwater or stormwater drainage pipe instead of the sewage pipe, resulting in polluted water being discharged into local rivers and streams. Using Esri’s ArcGIS system, DURL has assessed over 8,300 homes to date and found more than 1,000 misconnected appliances. Householder repairs are helping to improve water quality and aquatic biodiversity in their local rivers with more than 85% of the misconnections fixed to date.
DURL’s field-based teams use ESRI’s ArcGIS Field Maps to view maps of the surface water drainage network on their mobile devices. Using this app, they lift manholes in residential areas, record signs of pollution in stormwater drains, and upload their findings directly to a central dashboard.
Data is captured and shared in real-time and all locations of pollution are instantly visible to office-based staff. These teams can then identify the domestic properties that are associated with each polluted drain, using further geospatial analysis and satellite imagery. Appointments, which take 15 minutes, are scheduled with homeowners at ‘high probability’ properties and if a misconnection is discovered, next steps are recommended to remedy the issue.
