Flanders, Belgium

Description

Living Lab Flanders aims to assess the regional water system and its potential for incorporation of water-smart solutions, close water cycles and increasing resilience. Water availability and demand including potential alternative water sources will be modelled using UWOT to develop a regional strategy to increase water system robustness. The QMRA tool will be developed to assess water reuse safety.

Practical implementation of water reuse will be demonstrated on two sites (Diksmuide and Mechelen) with high transferability potential for the region:

i) Use of effluent or off-spec water to produce drinking water in Diksmuide
To reuse municipal effluent as drinking water, it has to be decided how to connect the wastewater treatment with the drinking water treatment, e.g. which technologies to choose and when to mix it with other drinking water sources, such as surface water. Technical demonstration of effluent reuse for drinking water with varying levels of pre-treatment will be carried out with a flexible pilot set-up containing ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO), UV desinfection and an activated carbon filter.
To cope with off-spec water qualities, a more performant drinking water installation is needed. Therefore, RO tests are carried out with focus on minimizing water losses. A demo scale CCRO (closed circuit reverse osmosis) of 10 m³/h will be installed.
For both test situations the technology options will be compared with respect to ensuring water supply, concentrated waste stream management, microbial and chemical water quality, and cost benefit analysis.

ii) Urban reuse of storm water for irrigation in Mechelen 
In Mechelen, a basin has been built to collect storm water to prevent flooding in the region. To link the buffer function to a reuse function, the discharge of the basin is controlled by the storm water management tool to achieve maximum water storage. A first control module for the buffer basin will safeguard the buffer function, based on weather forecasts and the current state of the basin.  A second control module will regulate the distribution of water to the connected fields, based on the available water volume, the irrigation needs of the crops and the groundwater level. Rainwater quality is monitored and water treatment is adjusted for potential pollutants to prevent groundwater pollution.