Glasgow’s Smart Canal is the first autonomous and dynamically managed surface water system in Europe.
The innovative surface water system utilises the historic Forth and Clyde Canal to mitigate flood risk and unlock regeneration opportunities.
Weather technology provides advanced warning of heavy rainfall which automatically triggers a lowering of the canal’s water level to create capacity for surface water runoff. This enables the canal to accept stormwater runoff from new residential and commercial sites which were previously constrained due to insufficient drainage capacity. It has subsequently delivered flood mitigation to existing communities.
Collaboration for success
The project was designed and developed by AECOM in conjunction with Scottish Canals, Glasgow City Council and Scottish Water. AECOM developed a hydraulic model of the canal system to provide an alternative solution to the provision of surface water drainage for the North Glasgow area.
AECOM highlighted their multidisciplinary engineering expertise to design a system that automatically lowers canal water levels using actuated sluice gates in advance of a storm event. This provides storage to accept stormwater runoff from development areas. Treated surface runoff discharges are returned into the canal, restoring its normal operating level by the end of a storm. The control of the canal water level balances several conflicting factors including minimising water wastage, maintaining navigability, and forecast accuracy.
Intelligent, dynamic water management system
The Smart Canal uses an innovative blend of a traditional concept and control philosophy, design, and installation, combined with a truly unique live hydrodynamic model. This has been developed using ICMLive software to provide an intelligent, dynamic water management system.
The scheme provides water quality monitoring and management, habitat improvements along with place creation and business opportunities for local communities. Community benefits include reduced flood risk, improved water quality, facilitated economic development, climate change adaptation, biodiversity and reduced environmental impact. This approach has also avoided significant cost and CO2e in comparison to traditional engineering solutions.
Considerable potential for future adoption
As climate change and flood risk become increasingly important factors in surface water management and urban resilience, the potential to adopt this approach in other contexts is considerable.
This project has shown how the combination of technology and engineering can enable legacy assets to further contribute to the fabric of civil infrastructure, avoiding additional carbon and cost expense and enabling regeneration in previously landlocked areas.