The Historical Development of Sewers Worldwide

Throughout history, various civilizations developed methodologies for the collection and disposal of human waste. The methodologies throughout the centuries have been characterized by technological peaks on the one hand, and by the disappearance of the technologies and their reappearance on the other. The purpose of this article is to trace the development of sewage collection and transport with an emphasis on toilets in ancient civilizations. Evolution of the major achievements in the scientific fields of sanitation with emphasis on the lavatory (or toilets) technologies through the centuries up to the present are presented. Valuable insights into ancient wastewater technologies and management with their apparent characteristics of durability, adaptability to the environment, and sustainability are provided. Gradual steps improved the engineering results until the establishment of the contemporary toilet system, which provides a combined solution for flushing, odor control, and the sanitation of sewerage. Even though the lack of proper toilet facilities for a great percentage of the present day global population is an embarrassing fact, the worldwide efforts through millennia for the acquisition of a well-engineered toilet were connected to the cultural level of each period.

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“…They had large sewers built of stone. Some of the sewers were large enough for people to walk through [23]. …”

Section: Minoan Civilization (Ca 3200-1100 Bc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They had large sewers built of stone. Some of the sewers were large enough for people to walk through [23]. No public toilets were known in Minoan Crete, while in a number of houses the lavatory was located in the private living rooms (e.g., Knossos, Phaistos, Tylissos, Malia, and Gournia).…”

Section: Minoan Civilization (Ca 3200-1100 Bc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Toilets Worldwide through the Millennia

Antoniou

Feo

Fardin³

et al. 2016

Sustainability

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“…Historically, the technological shift from open gutters to piped stormwater solutions enhanced the quality of urban life substantially (Ferriman 2007;De Feo et al 2014). However, city expansion, climate change and other drivers are stretching this technological regime tremendously (Chocat et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An SDG-based framework for assessing urban stormwater management systems

et al. 2019

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Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management on top of handling water should, ideally, deliver a multitude of other services to society; they are often seen as a lever for transforming cities in a more livable, green, resilient and sustainable direction, and these measures should be acknowledged as part of the services delivered. In this study we assess the services that Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management deliver with reference to targets and indicators from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; we also develop local, project level indicators that inform and are informed by the more broad Sustainable Development Goals indicators. We demonstrate through Danish cases ranging from lot to city scale that the proposed framework can help inform decision-makers about the sustainability of Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management. Despite difficulties in matching local indicators to SDG indicators, this first attempt at an assessment framework provides insight on which services of a project help to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals and, if used in the planning phase, could facilitate the design of projects that work focused and informed towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

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“…Archaeological evidence indicates that sewer systems existed in ancient Greece, Egypt, India and China since about 1000 AD (Angelakis et al, 2005;Burian and Edwards 2002;De Feo et al, 2014). These sewer systems were designed for the purpose of disposal of surface water, collection of stormwater for irrigation and discharge of sewage.…”

Section: Development Of Sewer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sewer systems were designed for the purpose of disposal of surface water, collection of stormwater for irrigation and discharge of sewage. (De Feo et al, 2014). Nowadays, well-planned and maintained sewer systems are considered as a critical infrastructure component of sustainable urban communities.…”

Section: Development Of Sewer Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the understanding of concrete sewer corrosion through investigations of the gaseous hydrogen sulfide uptake and transformation processes in the corrosion layer

Sun¹

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Sulfide-induced corrosion of sewer infrastructure costs multi-billion dollars globally. Sewer maintenance and management largely depends on the estimation of the sewer corrosion rate, which currently can be very rough due to poor understanding of details of the process. Hence improved understanding of the corrosion processes has a major beneficial impact globally through increased service life and reduced repair/replacement costs. The overall aim of this thesis is to improve the understanding of sewer corrosion processes and develop strategies for corrosion control.To rapidly and non-destructively monitor the corrosion process, a methodology was developed based on measuring the H 2 S (sulfide) uptake rates (SUR) of concrete. The SUR of concrete coupons was determined by monitoring the temporal gaseous H 2 S concentrations in a temperature-and humidity-controlled gas-tight reactor. The results from repeated tests showed good reliability of the method. A severely corroded coupon exhibited higher SUR than a less corroded coupon, suggesting that the former having a higher sulfide oxidation activity than the latter. Additionally, temperature changes had a stronger effect on the SUR of the heavily corroded coupon compared to the less corroded coupon. The corrosion rates estimated from the SUR agreed well with those observed in real sewers under similar conditions. The effect high H 2 S concentrations on the SUR of coupon were investigated. During the high load situation, the SUR increased significantly but then decreased (compared to the baseline SUR) by about 7 -14% and 41 -50% immediately after short-and long-term high H 2 S load periods, respectively. For both conditions, the SUR gradually (over several hours) recovered to approximately 90% of the baseline SUR. Further tests suggest multiple factors may contribute to the observed decrease of SUR directly after the high H 2 S load. This includes the temporary storage of elemental sulfur in the corrosion layer and inhibition of sulfide oxidizing bacteria due to high H 2 S level and temporary acid surge. The sensitivity of the coupon SUR towards high H 2 S loads was largely dependent on its historical H 2 S exposure levels. IIThe deprivation of gaseous H 2 S for 1 h consistently caused temporary increase of the H 2 S uptake rate (SUR) immediately upon H 2 S re-supply whereas deprivation of both gaseous H 2 S and O 2 for 1 h posed little increase of the SUR after re-supply. The results suggest that the H 2 S uptake process could be limited by the oxidation of reduced sulfur species. Furthermore, the SUR decreased by 1.2% after deprivation of H 2 S for a relative long-term (i.e. 12 h), suggesting a reduced biological activity after the extended "starvation".The details of sulfide oxidation by comparing oxidation activity of a suspended solution of a corrosion layer with gaseous H 2 S uptake activity of a coupon were investigated. With sufficient dissolved oxygen (DO) and in the presence of sulfide, the mole ratio of consumed The potential of mitigating sewer cor...

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The Historical Development of Sewers Worldwide

Cited by 86 publications

References 54 publications

Evolution of Toilets Worldwide through the Millennia

Evolution of Toilets Worldwide through the Millennia

An SDG-based framework for assessing urban stormwater management systems

Improving the understanding of concrete sewer corrosion through investigations of the gaseous hydrogen sulfide uptake and transformation processes in the corrosion layer

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