Description
Traditionally, a raindrop touching streets or sealed areas will be subsequently mixed with wastewater and therefore treated in a cost- and energy-intensive cleaning process.
The originally clean raindrop is treated as wastewater in a wastewater treatment plant and leads therefore to an unnecessary CO2 production, a reduction of the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants and finally a pollution of surface waters (due to combined sewer overflows).
But how can raindrops be prevented from becoming wastewater to reduce costs and energy and therefore CO2 production? Every single raindrop must remain in the natural water cycle, the rainwater must remain in its blue-green environment!
A wide range of research exists in the field of sustainable drainage approaches. At the hydraulic engineering section of the University of Wuppertal two research projects on the optimization of the management of cisterns and on the implementation of blue-green-infrastructures in (existing) settlements are being carried.
