Project Description

This project has received funding of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Community

The LIFE RUBIES project aims at developing decision-making tools to limit pollution of receiving water bodies due to stormwater overflows. More precisely, it will test the innovative methodologies developed under the previous LIFE EFFIDRAIN project in real-world situations, in two full-scale pilots in Lille and Madrid, selected to be representative of medium and large European cities. To this end, the project will integrate these methodologies into an existing platform (called AQUADVANCED UD® - AQDV), which is used to monitor real-time data harvested in the sewer, run models and send control rules to the wastewater system. The project team will demonstrate that the integrated pollution-based real-time control methods using the upgraded AQDV platform are effective in reducing pollution due to stormwater overflows and can be widely applied. Socio-economic aspects will also be considered, as they will be essential to disseminate the solutions developed.

The project directly contributes to the implementation of EU water policy, especially the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC), which requires Member States to limit pollution due to stormwater overflows, and the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). It will also contribute to national policies in France and Spain aiming to minimise water pollution. Indirectly, the project contributes to EU policy objectives on nature conservation and biodiversity, by reducing pressure of aquatic ecosystems, and EU climate change adaptation strategy, by reducing the environmental impacts of heavy-rain events, which are expected to occur more frequently due to climate change.

Consortium:
- SUEZ SMART SOLUTIONS, France (Coordinator)
- LYRE(SUEZ Eau France), France
- ULille(Université de Lille), France
- MEL(Métropole européenne de Lille), France
- CETAQUA, Spain
- AQUATEC, Spain
- Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC, Spain
- CYII(Canal de Isabel II, S.A.), Spain

More info
Official website