STOP-IT: strategic, tactical, operational protection of water infrastructure against cyberphysical threats

Water supply and sanitation infrastructures are essential for our welfare, but vulnerable to several attack types facilitated by the ever-changing landscapes of the digital world. A cyber-attack on critical infrastructures could for example evolve along these threat vectors: chemical/biological contamination, physical or communications disruption between the network and the supervisory SCADA. Although conceptual and technological solutions to security and resilience are available, further work is required to bring them together in a risk management framework, strengthen the capacities of water utilities to systematically protect their systems, determine gaps in security technologies and improve risk management approaches. In particular, robust adaptable/flexible solutions for prevention, detection and mitigation of consequences in case of failure due to physical and cyber threats, their combination and cascading effects (from attacks to other critical infrastructure, i.e. energy) are still missing. There is (i) an urgent need to efficiently tackle cyber-physical security threats, (ii) an existing risk management gap in utilities’ practices and (iii) an un-tapped technology market potential for strategic, tactical and operational protection solutions for water infrastructure: how the H2020 STOP-IT project aims to bridge these gaps is presented in this paper.Postprint (published version

Estudio en modelo físico / modelo numérico del flujo en un cruce de calles no ortogonales, y con bombeo transversal

En el pasado la construcción de las calles, principalmente en zonas próximas a rieras, iba destinado a conducir el agua que provenía de las cuencas. En la actualidad las calles se diseñan con otra función, facilitar la circulación de los automóviles, y por lo tanto solo están preparadas para conducir una pequeña cantidad de agua, la que se genera en la misma calle a causa de la lluvia, y con el propósito que sea interceptada por algún imbornal. El propósito de éste estudio es conocer el comportamiento hidráulico de un cruce de calles. A partir de un suceso de lluvia se produce un proceso de transformación de la precipitación en escorrentía. Por lo tanto, se genera un flujo que circula por las calles. Esta situación puede llegar al punto que se generarse una gran escorrentía de agua, provocado por el fallo del sistema de drenaje o por la obstrucción de los imbornales. Aunque esta situación límite, no será objeto de esta tesina ya que asumimos que toda el agua será captada por el imbornal, y los caudales no serán nunca muy grandes

Experimental design and verification of a centralized controller for irrigation canals

This thesis aims to develop a predictive control for irrigation canals to improve the management of water resources. Water is necessary for life and it is a scarce good that we need for drinking, in the agriculture, etc. At the same time, it can constitute a serious threat in particular areas due to the difficulty to grow foods by the increasing of prolonged droughts. The agriculture holds an important part of the food chain and the water resources for agriculture are important, the problem is the water transport systems present low efficiencies in practice. The yield agriculture has to be optimized, because the goal of an operational water manager is to deliver the water to the irrigation sites accurately and efficiently. To improve the efficiency of the water transport systems is necessary to invest in automating the operation of irrigation canals. In order to fulfill these objectives, we define an overall control diagrams scheme in chapter 5 which splits the management of the canal control in different blocks. The management of a canal start from setting the demand delivery accurately taking into account the crops necessities during an irrigation cycle and establishing the gate trajectories for controlling the canal in each time step. In an ideal case, the system would be controlled but some factors which could deviated the desired state for the canal from the real canal state, as for instance, a disturbance introduced into the canal. In that circumstances, it would be necessary to introduce in our overall control diagram, other algorithms which could aid the watermaster to restore the desired state of the canal. These algorithms, developed and tested for us, are the CSI and GoRoSoBo algorithms. The first one defines a powerful tool in the management of a canal. The Watermaster establishes the gates positions and fixes the desired water level at checkpoints to fulfill a scheduled demand. In that sense, when someone introduce a disturbance into the canal perturbs the water level at checkpoints, so the scheduled deliveries cannot fulfilled by the watermaster. In such case, the water level measurements at these checkpoints could be sent to the CSI algorithms which calculates the real extracted flow and the current canal state along the canal, that is, the water level and velocity in all cross-sections of the canal. This task is performed by the CSI algorithm which has been designed in this thesis and tested in numerous numerical examples (chapter 7) and experimentally in a laboratory canal of the Technical University of Catalonia (chapter 8). The last one is the essential tool in the management of a canal, that is, a control algorithm operating in real-time. The GoRoSoBo algorithm (Gómez, Rodellar, Soler, Bonet) is a feedback control algorithm which calculates the optimum gates trajectories for a predictive horizon taking into account the current canal state obtained by CSI as well as the scheduled demands and the previous gate trajectories. GoRoSoBo has been designed in this thesis and tested in several numerical examples (chapter 10) as the Test-Case proposed by the ASCE Task Committee on Canal Automation Algorithms (chapter 11). In that sense, we propose a centralized control performance to manage the canal control. In addition to these two main contributions, many other smaller developments, minor results and practical recommendations for irrigation canal automation are presented throughout this thesis.Aquesta tesi té com a objectiu principal desenvolupar un control predictiu per a canals de reg i d'aquesta manera fer una aportació a la gestió dels recursos hídrics. L'aigua és un bé escàs i necessari per a la vida. És un recurs que fem un ús habitual d'ell, per consum propi, a la industria, com a font d'energia, a la agricultura.... .Un recurs tan preuat en zones amb escassetat per sequeres prologades constitueix un problema important, ja que afecta al desenvolupament de la zona. Concretament al sector de la agricultura pot provocar una davallada dels cultius i la incapacitat de cobrir les necessitats de la zona. L'agricultura és una part important de la cadena alimentària i els recursos hídrics per a l'agricultura són imprescindibles. Un greu problema a la agricultura son els baixos rendiments dels cultius moltes vegades relacionats amb sistemes de transport d'aigua poc eficients. La gestió dels recursos hídrics ha de ser optimitzada per obtenir rendiments competitius, ja que l'objectiu d'un gestor d'aigua és lliurar l'aigua de reg amb precisió i eficiència. Per millorar l'eficiència dels sistemes de transport d'aigua és necessari invertir en l'automatització dels canals de reg. Per complir aquests objectius, es defineix un esquema general de control al capítol 5, que divideix la gestió del control de canal en diferents blocs. La gestió d'un canal de reg s'inicia amb la programació de les demandes hídriques dels agricultors tenint en compte les necessitats dels diferents cultius durant un cicle de reg. Amb aquesta informació el watermaster tindria que establir les trajectòries de comporta o les accions de control per lliurar les demanades hídriques requerides als diferents punts del canal. En un cas ideal, el sistema seria controlat però a la realitat alguns factors externs podrien desviar l'estat desitjat del real, com per exemple extraccions de cabal desconeguts. En aquest cas, caldria introduir en el nostre diagrama general de control, altres algoritmes que podrien ajudar al WaterMaster a restablir l'estat desitjat. Aquests algoritmes, desenvolupats i testejats per nosaltres, són els algoritmes CSI i GoRoSoBo. CSI defineix una poderosa eina en la gestió d'un canal. El Watermaster estableix les posicions de les comportes i fixa el nivell d'aigua desitjat per complir amb les demandes hídriques programades en diferent punts del canal. En aquest sentit, quan algú introdueix una pertorbació altera el nivells de l'aigua al llarg del canal modificant els lliuraments programats inicialment de tal manera que no es podrien complir. En aquest cas, les mesures dels nivells d'aigua en diferents punts de control podrien ser enviats al algoritme CSI que tenint en compte aquest informació, les trajectòries de comporta i les demandes previstes calcularia el caudal real extret per les estructures de control i l'estat hidrodinàmic del canal, és a dir, el nivell de l'aigua i la velocitat en totes les seccions del canal. Aquesta tasca es duu a terme mitjançant l'algorisme CSI que ha estat dissenyat en aquesta tesi i provat en nombrosos exemples numèrics (capítol 7) i experimentalment en un canal de laboratori de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (capítol 8). L'altre algorisme (GoRoSoBo) és l'eina essencial en la gestió d'un canal, és a dir, un algoritme de control que opera en temps real. GoRoSoBo (Gómez, Rodellar, Soler, Bonet) és un algorisme de control de retroalimentació (feedback) que calcula les trajectòries de comporta òptimes per un horitzó de predicció tenint en compte l'estat hidrodinàmic del canal en el moment actual i els caudals reals d'extracció obtinguts per CSI, així com les demandes programades i les trajectòries de comporta anteriors. GoRoSoBo ha estat dissenyat en aquesta tesi i provat en diversos exemples numèrics (capítol 10), així com als casos de prova proposats pel ASCE (Clemmens et a., 1998) (capítol 11) amb resultats excel·lent

Modeling mixing in stratified heterogeneous media: the role of water velocity discretization in phase space formulation

Modeling solute transport in heterogeneous porous media faces two challenges: scale dependence of dispersion and reproducing mixing separately from spreading. Both are crucial since real applications may require km scales whereas reactions, often controlled by mixing, may occur at the pore scale. Methods have been developed in response to these challenges, but none has satisfactorily characterized both processes. In this paper, we propose a formulation based on the Water Mixing Approach extended to account for velocity variability. Velocity is taken as an independent variable, so that concentration depends on time, space and velocity. Therefore, we term the formulation the Multi-Advective Water Mixing Approach. A new mixing term between velocity classes emerges in this formulation. We test it on Poiseuille’s stratified flow using the Water Parcel method. Results show high accuracy of the formulation in both dispersion and mixing. Moreover, the mixing process exhibits Markovianity in space even though it is modeled in timePeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Aquaporins 7 and 11 in boar spermatozoa : detection, localisation and relationship with sperm quality

Aquaporins (AQPs) are integral membrane water channels that allow transport of water and/or small solutes across cell membranes. Although water permeability is known to play a critical role in mammalian cells, including spermatozoa, little is known about their localisation in boar spermatozoa. Against this background, two different aquaporins, AQP7 and AQP11, were identified in boar spermatozoa by Wwestern blotting and localised through immunocytochemistry analyses. WOur western blot results showed that boar spermatozoa present AQP7 (25KDa) and AQP11 (50KDa). Immunocytochemistry analyses demonstrated that AQP7 is localised at the connecting piece of boar spermatozoa, while AQP11 was found in the head and in the midpiece, and a diffuse labelling was also seen along the tail. Despite differences in AQP7- and AQP11-content being seen between boar ejaculates, these differences were not found to be correlated with sperm quality in the case of AQP7. Conversely, AQP11-content showed a significant correlation (P<0.05) with sperm quality parameters, including sperm membrane integrity and fluidity, and sperm motility. In conclusion, boar spermatozoa present AQP7 and AQP11,. Additionally, and the amounts of the latterAQP11 but not of AQP7 the former are correlated with sperm motility and membrane integrity

The FC Algorithm to Estimate the Manning’s Roughness Coefficients of Irrigation Canals

Freshwater scarcity has driven the integration of technological advancements and automation systems in agriculture in order to attempt to improve water-use efficiency. For irrigation canals, water-use efficiency is, in great measure, limited by the performance of management systems responsible for controlling the flow and delivering water to the farmers. Recent studies show a significant sensitivity of the results obtained from irrigation canal control algorithms with respect to the Manning’s roughness coefficient value, thus, highlighting the importance of its correct estimation to ensure an accurate and efficient water delivery service. This is the reason why the friction coefficient algorithm was developed, to monitor the real behaviour of any irrigation canal by calculating the Manning’s roughness coefficient constantly. The friction coefficient algorithm was conceived as a powerful offline tool that is integrated in a control diagram of any irrigation canal, concretely in an optimization control algorithm, which can reconfigure canal gates according to the current crop water demand and the real Manning’s roughness coefficient values. The friction coefficient algorithm has been applied in several irrigation canals and different scenarios, with accurate results obtaining an average Manning coefficient deviation among 2 × 10-4 and 4.5 × 10-4.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Velocity measurements in highly aerated flow on a stepped chute without sidewall constraint using a BIV technique

The lack of sidewalls in a spillway leads to lateral expansion of the flow and, consequently, a non-uniform transversal flow rate distribution along the chute. The present work shows the velocity field measured in a physical model of a 1 V:0.8 H steeply sloping stepped spillway without sidewalls. An application of a Bubble Image Velocimetry (BIV) technique in the self-aerated region is shown, using air bubbles entrained into the flow downstream of the inception point as tracers. The results indicate that, for small dimensionless discharges and sufficiently downstream of the point of inception, the free-surface velocity compares relatively well with the corresponding air–water interfacial velocity previously obtained with a double-tip fiber optical probe in the same facility. In turn, the velocity profiles along the normal to the pseudo-bottom, far downstream of the inception point, are reasonably in agreement with the air–water interfacial velocity profiles in the inner part of the skimming flow, with the largest differences being verified in the upper skimming flow region near the free-surface.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, grant number project CIT-38000-2009-4 presented to the National Applied Research Projects under the National framework of R+D+I 2008–2011; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, grant number BIA2013-49007-C2-2-R presented to the State Program for Research, Development and Innovation Oriented to the Challenges of Society 2014–2017.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

GoRoSoBo: an overall control diagram to improve the efficiency of water transport systems in real time

Agriculture plays an important part in the food chain and water resources for agriculture are essential. A problem is that the water transport systems present low efficiencies in practice. Crop yields must be optimized, and the goal of an operational water manager is to deliver water to irrigation sites accurately and efficiently. In order to fulfill this objective, we propose a centralized overall control diagram to optimize the management of the canal. Our control diagram in real time is mainly composed of two algorithms, CSE and GoRoSoBo. The first one is a powerful tool in canal management, and is able to estimate the real extracted flow in the canal and the hydrodynamic canal state from measured level data at selected points. The second one is an essential tool in the management of the canal, a feedback control algorithm operating in real time. The GoRoSoBo algorithm (Gómez, Rodellar, Soler, Bonet) is able to calculate the optimum gates trajectories for a predictive horizon taking into account the current canal state and the real extracted flow, both obtained by CSE.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Desarrollo de un modelo hidrológico del comportamiento de la Riera del Carme

Los programas informáticos son una herramienta para conocer los caudales de avenidas en una riera, y por lo tanto son muy importantes para la prevención de catástrofes. En España estos programas son de especial interés dado su especial orografía y su especial régimen de lluvias. Es decir, un relieve bastante abrupto acompañado de unas lluvias intensas en un espacio corto de tiempo. Esta Tesina pretende ver el funcionamiento de un programa a través de la riera del Carme. Los objetivos principales de esta Tesina son conocer todos los valores de los parámetros o variables que vamos a utilizar en nuestro programa (Sobek), para conseguir una modelización realista de los hidrogramas de la riera del Carme y estudiar la sensibilidad del programa ante la modificación de estos parámetros. Para poder conseguir nuestra finalidad que no es otra que desarrollar un modelo que gestione conjuntamente la hidrología superficial y subterránea de la cuenca. Todo este estudio se centra en la riera del Carme donde la A.C.A nos prestó datos de hidrogramas, pluviogramas y alturas del nivel de agua necesarios para la realización de este trabajo

Renovación del emisario submarino de la EDAR de Vilanova i la Geltrú

El municipi de Vilanova i la Geltrú és la capital de la comarca del Garraf i es troba situat entre les principals àrees metropolitanes (a 40 km de Barcelona y 45 de Tarragona). Té una extensió total de 33,5 km2 i una població de 51.683 habitants, segons el cens oficial de 1998. En l’actualitat les aigües residuals generades al municipi són abocades per un emissari submarí situat entre el port i la Platja del Far de Sant Cristòfol. Aquestes aigües són tractades prèviament a una EDAR situada a uns 450 m de la costa. El present projecte té per objecte realitzar la renovació de l’emissari submarí per al desguàs d’aigües residuals situat al terme municipal de Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf). L’EDAR s’ubica al sector de La Bòbila, per damunt de la via del tren, separada de l’estació i de la part més oriental de Vilanova i la Geltrú per la Ronda d’Europa. El traçat actual de l’emissari té una longitud total de 2736 m, dels quals 881 metres són de tram terrestre