The smart canal driving flood prevention and unlocking 3000 residential properties

Schneider Electric solutions have supported the development of Europe’s first Smart Canal, which is helping with flood risk reduction and environmental rejuvenation in Glasgow.

The Forth & Clyde Canal was a groundbreaking achievement when it was built in 1790 as the world’s first sea-to-sea canal. With a construction period that lasted 22 years due to the lack of railway lines and major roads, it was a cutting-edge innovation of its era.

Now, North Glasgow Integrated Water Management System (NGIWMS), Scottish Canals, Glasgow City Council, and Scottish Water (under the umbrella of the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Scheme) have created Europe’s first ‘Smart Canal’.

Using the 250-year-old Forth & Clyde Canal, a broad team of delivery partners, including construction, systems integrators, and technology vendors, delivered an advanced, digital, surface water drainage system.

This pioneering new drainage system unlocks 110 hectares of land, creating regeneration and development opportunities to pave the way for more than 3,000 new homes while protecting the area from extreme rainfall to mitigate the effects of climate change. Further, the project shows that even the oldest infrastructure can be brought right back to the cutting edge of engineering achievement.

Sewer networks across North Glasgow were rapidly reaching design capacity, requiring a new approach to water management. The drainage limitations of the antiquated system prevented 110 hectares of land from being developed and blocked vital urban regeneration. To unlock the significant potential of the area, NGIWMS needed to reduce the flood risk on greenfield and brownfield sites and prove that new housing could be provided sustainably and without undue harm or risk to the environment.

AECOM developed the NGIWMS concept in 2013, a plan to use the Forth & Clyde Canal as a sustainable surface water drainage tool to completely revolutionise the way canals contribute to water management.

Fairfield Control Systems was the chosen partner to implement all electrical, instrumentation, and IT infrastructure necessary for the proposed Smart Canal system, and it turned to long-time collaborator Schneider Electric to unlock sustainability and efficiency capabilities through end-to-end digitalisation.

The problem

Without intervention, Glasgow City Council would be extremely limited in the use of land both close to the canal and downstream, with the increased risk of flooding due to rainfall-associated surface water. This would traditionally have been mitigated by building a transfer tunnel made of reinforced concrete at an estimated cost of £40M. However, this is an expensive and carbon-heavy approach that would have greatly held back sustainability efforts.

The ability to monitor, manage and move water throughout the existing watercourse was required to overcome the surface water concerns without a transfer tunnel. A team was assembled to create and implement an integrated control system capable of protecting both existing and proposed developments from potentially damaging weather events.

Achieving a system that models forecast rainfall data and predicts water volume into the canal required a collaborative and shared digital environment capable of receiving data from 22 outstations situated across the canal network. Schneider Electric automation products, combined with the open-architecture of AVEVA System Platform, AVEVA Historian, and AVEVA InTouch OMI, delivered the capability and, importantly, offered instant interoperability due to an open-architecture approach.

The solution

Each outstation of the watercourse uses a combination of remote telemetry units (RTUs) and PLCs, also using both mains and solar power. The system, which was designed to comply with the IEC62443 Industrial Cyber Security Standards, takes weather data and feeds it into a hydraulic simulation of flows to proactively identify flood risks, with the SCADA control system remotely opening and closing valves and managing the water level accordingly.

The Forth & Clyde Canal summit pond has created a capacity for 55,000m3 of surface water (equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools) to be accessed in advance of predicted rainfall. Canal water is safely moved through a network that includes sustainable urban drainage ponds and granite channels, which absorb and manage water in a controlled way.

Schneider Electric and AVEVA support the canal’s smart capabilities through real-time insight and control. AVEVA System Platform and AVEVA InTouch OMI act as the single digital thread for all canal operations, integrating seamlessly with and receiving data from a variety of sources throughout the network.

The export and display of data, facilitated by AVEVA System Platform’s visualisation capabilities, prioritise delivering key information to the operator’s selected device. This approach not only provides valuable insights but also minimises operator strain.

The remote monitoring of the Schneider Electric installed base enables operators to manage energy usage for efficiency optimisation, with all data recorded into the AVEVA Historian for modelling and informing decision-making and ‘smart’ pre-emptive management of water. The whole system is protected through the Acti9 Active connected product suite, monitoring the critical loads to protect power availability throughout the smart canal. The efficiency provided through the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure platform improves the reliability of the entire complex system and feeds data into the digital environment for continuous monitoring and improvements.

The impact

Glasgow’s first smart canal has now been in place and operational since 2020. Water quality is managed, flood risk is reduced, and the regeneration of the area has paved the way for the development of more than 3,000 homes. Water quality is automatically recorded for all variables (pH, turbidity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen) to enable and enhance the ongoing protection of the habitat.

Sustainability and environmental protection were key drivers for this operation, and the project team has achieved improvements in both areas, providing a capital saving of 5,000tCO2e through the creation of the smart canal and over 30,000t operational CO2e avoidance when compared to the carbon-heavy approach of using a transfer tunnel. This traditional method would have also cost an estimated £23M more in CAPEX than the route taken.

Conclusion

Glasgow’s smart canal has solved the surface water issues at five key sites where development had previously proved impossible. Not only has the project cost less than traditional flood management options, but it has also delivered, and will keep delivering, a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Fairfield Control Systems expertise, combined with Schneider Electric technology, has resulted in a digital environment that can be accessed securely and monitored remotely by engineers to respond to real-time information for continuous improvement.