Project description DEENESFRITPL Exploring river pollution A natural and essential component of rivers and key in their functioning, fine-grained sediment (FGS) could also be a major source of chemical and physical pollution. Thanks to intensified agricultural activity and the associated rise in soil erosion in Europe, the amount of FGS in water streams has increased. As a result, the quality of water is deteriorating. To understand the dynamics of such sedimentation, the EU-funded MULTIPIR project will investigate the migration of FGS by developing multi-scale models to predict its transport and other factors. Ultimately, the project will create a pollution control map to guide river management. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective River pollution has become a serious environmental problem in the Europe and worldwide as it dramatically affects the freshwater quality and human health. A major source of chemical and physical pollution in rivers is small particles known as fine-grained sediment (FGS). Intensified agricultural practices and the associated increase in soil erosion in Europe has caused a shape increase in the supply of FGS to water streams. Consequently, the water quality in many rivers in Europe have deteriorated and are failing to meet minimum water quality standards. Hence, there is a urgent need to address the river pollution problem through a thorough understanding on how much supplied FGS infiltrates into the river bed and how much is resuspended and migrated at different hydrodynamic conditions, i.e. the dynamics of FGS. MULTIPIR takes an inter-disciplinary approach to tackle this challenge heads-on by combining the extraordinary experience of the researcher in erosion, sand production, hydraulics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the expertise of the supervisor in coupled discrete element methods with CFD (DEM-CFD) and solid-liquid flows. A combined experimental and numerical investigation on the migration of FGS in the river will be performed, from which multiscale models will be developed to predict the infiltration and re-suspension of FGS at the microscopic level and the transport of FGS at different hydraulic conditions at the macroscopic scale. Using the developed model, a river pollution control map will be developed to guide the river managements. It is for the first time that advanced engineering approaches, e.g. DEM-CFD and advanced imaging techniques, are employed to address the challenging environmental problem and to develop a science-based river pollution control strategy that can benefit European citizens and beyond. Fields of science natural sciencesearth and related environmental scienceshydrologynatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollutionnatural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid dynamicscomputational fluid dynamics Keywords River Pollution Discrete Element Method DEM-CFD Erosion Particle Technology Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Net EU contribution € 224 933,76 Address Stag hill GU2 7XH Guildford United Kingdom See on map Region South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex West Surrey Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
