Assessment of human stability in sewer systems during dry weather conditions

Russo B. ; Locatelli L. ; Yubero D. ; Ruiz O. ; Acero Oliete A.

Resumen: Inspection and maintenance tasks are essential to guarantee the correct operation of sewer drainage networks. In combined sewers, these tasks are generally carried out during dry periods when only wastewater flow circulates in the system. When the sewer is big enough to allow the access of people, this inspection is done in person with consequent potential exposure to several hazards such as the presence of toxic gases, the possibility to fall or the loss of stability due to the presence of a continuous wastewater flow. In this context, this paper presents a methodology to assess hazard conditions related to human stability in sewer systems during dry weather periods. Hazard assessment has been performed by applying several hazard criteria to the results of a 1D sewer model simulations regarding a real network in Spain. Results show that the influence of the selection of hazard criteria is relevant, although only a small part of the whole system can be classified as high hazard. Regardless, the proposed method is highly effective to detect these kinds of pipes and we consider them as critical point to improve health and safety procedures during maintenance and inspection tasks. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/w13212954

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Water (Switzerland) 13, 21 (2021), 2954 [10 pp]
ISSN: 2073-4441

Factor impacto JCR: 3.53 (2021)

Categ. JCR: WATER RESOURCES rank: 36 / 99 = 0.364 (2021) - Q2 - T2
Categ. JCR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES rank: 148 / 279 = 0.53 (2021) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 4.8 - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Q1) - Social Sciences (Q1) - Environmental Science (Q2) - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Q2)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.716 - Aquatic Science (Q1) - Geography, Planning and Development (Q1) - Biochemistry (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)