Challenges in urban drainage — Canadian and Italian perspectives

A comparative analysis of urban drainage challenges in Italy and Canada is presented. The abatement of urban stormwater and CSO pollution is addressed by both countries. The Canadian efforts are guided by provincial and federal policies, and focus on both stormwater management and CSO control and treatment. While significant advances have been achieved in stormwater management in new urban areas, the progress in CSO abatement is slower and focuses on storage and satellite treatment. The Italian efforts are guided by the EU directives and deal mostly with CSO abatement, because of the predominance of combined sewers. The currently addressed issues include operation of sewer systems with storage facilities in real time, and optimal layouts of such systems. For control planning, the UK Urban Pollution Management Procedure is being evaluated. With respect to knowledge sharing between research communities of both countries, Canada can offer stormwater management practices and satellite CSO treatment; Italian contributions include effective layouts of distributed CSO storage and operation of such systems in real time.