Assessment of rainfall-derived inflow and infiltration in sewer systems with machine learning approaches.

Journal: Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research
Published Date:

Abstract

Rainfall-derived inflow/infiltration (RDII) modelling during heavy rainfall events is essential for sewer flow management. In this study, two machine learning algorithms, random forest (RF) and long short-term memory (LSTM), were developed for sewer flow prediction and RDII estimation based on field monitoring data. The study implemented feature engineering for extracting physically significant features in sewer flow modelling and investigated the importance of the relevant features. The results from two case studies indicated the superior capability of machine learning models in RDII estimation in the combined and separated sewer systems, and LSTM model outperformed the two models. Compared to traditional methods, machine learning models were capable of simulating the temporal variation in RDII processes and improved prediction accuracy for peak flows and RDII volumes in storm events.

Authors

  • Yong Wang
    State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hunghom Kowloon Hong Kong P. R. China kwok-yin.wong@polyu.edu.hk.
  • Biao Huang
    Institute of Quality Standards & Testing Technology for Agro-products, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences/ Fujian Key Laboratory of Agro-products Quality and Safety, Fuzhou, 350003, China.
  • David Z Zhu
    School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.