The role of open data in regulating combined sewer overflows
The aim of this work is to investigate how open data can play a beneficial role in the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs). The investigation consists of a review and critical discussion of historic CSO design, alongside more recent developments of regulations and emerging experiences of monitoring CSOs and different levels of data openness. The study focuses on practice in 10 European countries/regions. The novelty of this work comes from its review of historical development of design guidelines and regulations, shifts in the aims of these regulations, practicalities around implementation and testing of compliance, alongside the openness and availability of data. The main conclusions are that increasingly complex regulation goes hand in hand with limited compliance checking and opaque decision-making, whereas opening up relatively simplistic performance data has generated public and political discussion about urban drainage systems and the potential costs of improvements in water quality of the impacted surface water bodies. Making CSO data open does, however, need to be done with due care. Collaboration with trusted citizen groups, ensuring the data are correct, easy to access, and understand, as well as avoiding a blame culture are all of key importance.
Authors
- Simon Tait (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0004-9555)
- Alma Schellart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6494-8165)
- Jörg Rieckermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4227-2429)
- Ulrich Dittmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1723-3356)
- Luca Vezzaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6344-7131)
- Jean-Luc Bertrand-Krajewski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3204-8861)
- Isabel Douterelo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3410-8576)
- Günter Gruber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9153-1373)
- F.H.L.R. Clemens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5731-0582)
- Marius Møller Rokstad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4650-3554)
- José Anta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-0618)
- James D. Shucksmith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5497-0051)
- Franz Tscheikner-Gratl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2545-6683)
- Henriette Stokbro Jensen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1047-0622)
- Boud Verbeiren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4545-0051)
- Frank Blumensaat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0742-7950)
- Liz Sharp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1611-9239)
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Universidade da Coruña (ES)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- University of Kaiserslautern (DE)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- Graz University of Technology (AT)
- University of Computer Sciences and Skills (PL)
- Hydrogenics (Belgium) (BE)
- Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Arts (DE)
- Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (FR)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH)
- University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern (DE)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Water Science & Technology
- Published
- 2025-07-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2025.105
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.60
Funders
- European Commission