3D Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series

Real-time Beach Water Quality Forecast for Hong Kong

Opening Address

Deputy Director of Environmental Protection, HKSAR Mr. Benny Wong, JP

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series

Real-time Beach Water Quality Forecast for Hong Kong

Lecture Title:

3D Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

:

Speakers:

Prof. Joseph Hun-wei Lee & Prof. Wenping Wang

Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator of Project WATERMAN

Project WATERMAN

Outline -
Why environmental impact assessment (EIA)? Why 3DEIA? - Challenges of quantitative EIA NOVA a robust tool for 3DEIA Applications and case studies Advanced computer graphics (CG) techniques - Concluding remarks -

Hong Kongs coastal waters -

Wetland Coral reef

Fish farm

Beach

Marine park

Habitat of Chinese dolphin

Secondary contact zone

Oyster bed

Main pollutant discharges -

Discharge from paper mill on Yangtze

Domestic sewage

Industrial effluent

Stormwater

Thermal discharge

Accidental pollutant discharges -

Toxic spill

Chemical spill

Toxic cyanide spill in Xijiang River March 1997

Chemical spill in Songhuajiang River after an explosion November 2005

Pipe damage Closure of 5 beaches in Tuen Mun July 1997

Oil spill 78000 m3 of crude oil discharged from ruptured oil well in Gulf of Mexico April 2010

Water pollution problems

Dissolved oxygen level Sewage slick Unionized ammonia level Bacteria level Toxic organic pollutants Endocrine Disrupting Compounds Ecological threat

Red tide

Beach closure

Examples of Marine Water Quality Objectives (WQOs) -

Parameter - Physical () Biological () Chemical () Nutrient () Dissolved oxygen (bottom) E. coli Unionized ammonia Total inorganic nitrogen WQO #1 > 4 mg/L #2 < 610 counts/100mL #3 < 0.021 mg/L #4 < 0.1 mg/L #4

#1: Tolo Harbour Water Quality Control Zone #2: 90 percentile #3: annual geometric mean #4: annual mean

Why environmental impact assessment (EIA)? ?

Determine and quantify environmental impacts due to development activities - Water quality management (standards, regulations) - Project design and decision making - Disaster mitigation and response -

What is EIA ? ?
= Treat the environment like a bucket into which waste may be deposited until it is full?

Avoid, minimize and mitigate adverse impacts in a most sustainable and economical manner

Tolo Harbour Effluent Export Scheme 1

Avoidance
Tai Po STW Tolo Harbour
New Territories

Kowloon Discharge of exported effluent

Sha Tin STW

Kowloon

Hong Kong Island

Victoria Harbour
HK Island (After 1998)

Low

E. coli level

High

Sewage outfall

Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS)

Treatment level and discharge location
2
Minimization

-
Stage 1Commenced in December 2001 (Chemically Enhanced Primary Treatment)

Disinfection (chlorination): Started in March 2010 () Stage 2A : Commenced

Optimisation of disinfection (chlorine) dosage 3 ()

Mitigation
Without disinfection
E. coli (counts/100 mL) SAL:
10 100 1000 10000

With disinfection
E. coli (counts/100 mL) SAL:
10 100 1000 10000

Kowloon

Kowloon

Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong Island

815000

820000

825000

830000

835000

However, too much chlorine is toxic () to aquatic life ! Chlorination byproducts is carcinogenic () to humans !

Can we real-time control the disinfection dosage? () ?

Key concept in EIA: Assimilative Capacity -

The environment has a self-purification capacity () by a series of physical, chemical and biological processes.

Small volume of pollutant Huge receiving water body

Physical - (mixing, dispersion, sedimentation) Biological - (die-off, degradation, decomposition) Chemical - (oxidation-reduction, neutralization)

Raw sewage Secondary treated Initial dilution Secondary dilution and decay

Treatment level

Natural environment

Assimilative capacity -
Site-specific
Kowloon New Territories

0.02 -0.03 m/s

Hong Kong Island

Tolo Harbour

Tidal flushing

Assimilative capacity

Activity-specific
e.g.: Sewage discharge, thermal discharge, reclamation

Time-dependent

Predicted monthly-averaged NH4 level at Qiaotou, East River

River flow NH4

Waste assimilative capacity is dependent on the river flow

By 2030, 60% of the worlds population will be living in towns and cities - 60%

If the assimilative capacity is exceeded, water pollution problems arise!

Challenges of quantitative EIA

Challenges of quantitative EIA

Determination of the impact and the sphere of influence Complex marine environment in Hong Kong Complicated 3D hydrodynamic mixing and transport Need for robust modelling tools Effective public engagement

Factors influence Hong Kongs hydrography

1. Tidal currents 2. Pearl River discharge 3. Monsoon induced coastal currents

Complicated tidal currents -

Environmental discharges in the form of buoyant jets

Single jet

Multiple jet

Dense jet

Sediment jet

Scientific management of water quality relies on quantitative EIA

,

Mixing processes -
Near field + Intermediate field + Far field Length: km Time: hr

Plan view

Length:10-500m Time: min

Side view

Far field transport -

Tidal current transporting pollutants to nearby beaches

Spreading of bottom density current

Near field ~ 10m Intermediate field ~ 100m

Ambient current

NOVA a robust tool for 3DEIA

Project WATERMAN
1 General Lagrangian 3D buoyant jet model - JETLAG/VISJET

2 Near-far field coupling -

NOVA

Hydrodynamic and transport model

JETLAG/VISJET -
Extensive laboratory and field validation

Experiments +
PIV LIF

numerical modeling
Visualization CFD

Advected line thermal

Vortex pair

NOVA Project WATERMAN 3DEIA system

Seamless and robust 3D prediction from near to far field
Laboratory observation

DESA prediction

Full integration with GIS data and advanced visualization Effective communication and public engagement
Internet-based

GIS-based

Numerical harbour

3D Digital Terrain Model and GIS

Applications and case studies

Application Examples -
Prediction of water quality at the locations of sensitive receivers Determination of mixing zones Submarine outfall design Estimation of the environmental risks Unraveling the causes of accidental pollution disasters

1. Defining the initial mixing zone of wastewater discharges

Multiple discharges from a rosette diffuser The length of initial mixing zone? Ua = 0.15m/s Ua = 0.4m/s

Length of initial mixing zone = 20m Length of initial mixing zone =190m

2. Impact of Sai Kung increased sewage discharge on seawater salinity

() PM2
Will salinity drop significantly? Will fish production be reduced?
Trio

Sai Kung outfall

Kiu Tsui
PM3

Hap Mun

Ma Nam Wat

Fish farm Beach Marine water quality monitoring

Sai Kung outfall Kiu Tsui

Outfall

Ma Nan Wat

Salinity (ppt) 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

Salinity at water surface of the outfall

Salinity (ppt)

Salinity at Ma Nam Wat

Salinity (ppt)

1 2 ppt difference only!

3. Sai Kung Secondary Sewage Treatment Works

Optimizing the outfall location -
E. coli level (counts/100 mL) E. coli level (counts/100 mL)

100 times higher bacteria level!!

Outfall
(Option A)

Outfall
(Option B)

E. coli level Low High

Close to a public pier

In more open water (existing site)

Impact of secondary treated sewage discharge upon a beach based on E. coli

Sai Kung outfall

PM3
E. coli level (counts/100 mL)

Kiu Tsui

WQO

180

E. coli level (counts/100 mL)

E. coli level Low High

Beach Marine water quality monitoring

WQO

610

4. Impact of rain storm event -

River discharge (m3/s) E. coli (counts/100 mL)

Time (day) Time (day)

Surface salinity (ppt)

Salinity (ppt) 32 33 34 35

Time (day)

5. Pillar Point sewage outfall damaged by a dredger - (1997)

~3-4 am on 8 July: a dredger damaged the outfall pipeline ~11-12 am on 8 July: extremely high E. coli level was measured at nearby beaches 11 July: beach closure

Damaged Pillar Point Outfall

Damaged outfall pipeline near shore Two large punctured holes in outfall pipe (depth 5 m, total flow = 0.98 m3/s)

Normal operating condition (70 vertical jets, total flow = 1.46 m3/s, depth 10 m)

Is the high bacteria level caused by the dredger? ?

.co (cou ts/ 00 10000 Normal Broken

Go de

610 180

E. coli level at Golden Beach (counts/100 mL)

1000

100 24 10

After damage

1 5-Jul

6-Jul

7-Jul

8-Jul

9-Jul

10-Jul

11-Jul

6. Real-time control of disinfection dosage; Harbour Area Treatment Scheme

Fate and transport from the submarine outfall to sensitive receivers

Optimal real-time controlled chlorine dosage

()

HATS outfall

Can we work with nature to optimize chlorine dosage while still protecting Tsuen Wan beaches?

6h

6h

Predicted E. coli level at Gemini Beach

10000 1000 100 10 1 0.1 0.01 0.001 9-Jun 11-Jun 13-Jun 15-Jun 17-Jun 19-Jun E.coli (counts/100mL) 610 180 24

WQO

Over-protection Poor water quality

Full Disinfection No Disinfection Intermittent Operation

With a careful control of disinfection dosage, beach water quality can meet WQO practically all of the time

Summary (1)
Assimilative capacity of water bodies depends significantly on environmental conditions EIA requires fundamental scientific research that spans several disciplines The NOVA system crystallizes from decades of work in environmental hydraulics and computational engineering. It has been thoroughly validated against laboratory and field data. Project WATERMAN NOVA ( )

Summary (2)
Combining with an advanced GIS system, NOVA provides, a powerful tool for quantifying, and hence, the avoidance, minimization and mitigation of different forms of pollution in water bodies effective communication to decision-makers, engineering professions and general public the risks and management of water pollution and thereby raising their understanding and appreciation for EIA as a valuable tool to protect the environment

NOVA

Advanced computer graphics (CG) techniques

Advanced Computer Graphics (CG) Techniques -

There are 2 systems
NOVA: a 3D GIS-integrated software running on a single computer, for 3D EIA Internet EIA: a web-based delivery system for NOVAs scenarios, for public engagement

Challenges
Both systems deal with visualization of huge GIS-data as well as simulation results in 3D Different challenges, different approaches

Data to Visualize
Terrain (tens of gigabytes)

Near-field jets
(up to a few hundred megabytes)

Far-field Simulation Results

(up to a few gigabytes)

The NOVA Software, NOVA

NOVA is a software used mainly by professionals using high performance computers Like a CAD software, but operates in full 3D Terrain data cannot be fitted into the memory so it must first be simplified for efficient display. Some details are lost in the process. Far-field and near-field jet data are rendered directly. Programmable display card (GPU) is used for efficient interpolation, which is vital to smooth animation.

NOVA in Action, NOVA

CG Challenges in Internet EIA, EIA

Used by the public with different kinds of computers so high performance computer is not guaranteed Need to support most visualization functions in NOVA, like full 3D GIS integration, interactive viewing, data-interrogation etc. Gigabyte size data is not practical to be distributed directly via the Internet

CG Solution for Internet EIA EIA

Separate handling for static and dynamic data
Static data GIS/Terrain data Dynamic data Far-field concentration field data and near-field jet data

Static Data Server-assisted rendering Dynamic Data Video streaming

Internet EIA Schematics EIA

Static Data
Multiple Rendering Servers
Partial images

Whole image

Control Server

Image Compositing Server

On-demand Data

Whole image

Clients Data Interrogation Service

Conversion

INTERNET

Sim. Results

Movie files

Dynamic Data

Video Streaming Server

Video stream

Server-assisted Rendering
Client does not require high-res terrain data Server renders image directly for client for each steady viewpoint Only images are transmitted to client No excess terrain details are transmitted Rendered image is usually returned within 1 sec Complex render algorithms are implemented in servers only so client is very light weight

Video Streaming for Visualization

Accurate dataset is down-sampled to perception level accuracy. i.e. only to maintain a correct perceived color coding at a pre-defined resolution. Data size is greatly reduced. Accurate data is only sent during data interrogation. Using video compression to further reduce file size. Using streaming technology to send data at a steady rate to prevent sudden network traffic surge.

Internet EIA Characteristics EIA

Bandwidth requirement similar to watching Youtube video, i.e. no large file download Instantaneous high resolution terrain display Higher terrain quality than local visualization Very low client computation power requirement

Internet EIA NOVA

Internet EIA in Action, EIA

Concluding Remarks -
As illustrated by the applications examples, a robust 3D water quality forecast and visualization system has been developed to quantify the impacts and environmental risks of Infrastructure projects and communicate the predicted impact to the stakeholders effectively. It includes two key components: 1) the modelling and visualization system (NOVA) serves as an EIA tool for professionals; 2) the internet-based interactive visualization system that delivers realistic 3D visualization of simulated results over the Internet for easy public access.

To treasure our coastal water resources by first understanding them Please visit our WATERMAN webpage www.waterman.hku.hk for more details

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series

Real-time Beach Water Quality Forecast for Hong Kong

Q and A

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series

Real-time Beach Water Quality Forecast for Hong Kong

Souvenir Presentation

3D Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Project WATERMAN Public Lecture Series