Pump industry professionals around the world are facing unprecedented precipitation and unexpected weather events that put pressure on water infrastructure. Surprising phenomena in unusual places have been occurring in the U.S., but climate stressors have caused conventional weather behaviors to shift drastically. This change requires industry experts to consider new approaches to dewatering to prepare for extreme weather.
Urgency Set by Current Events
Atmospheric river flooding has been tormenting the West Coast in the U.S., and it is considered a major anomaly. These downpours lead to oversaturated soils and runoff, causing a medley of other concerns as side effects. Combine these events with the region’s typical weather, including heavy rain and snowstorms, and it becomes a recipe for mass infrastructure and land destruction.
In the coming years, these situations may become more frequent and more severe. They are hitting places where they were never anticipated to, including the Pacific Northwest. The nearby mountainous regions are also particularly vulnerable, as the terrain becomes even more dangerous.
Issues With Traditional Dewatering Systems
The 100-year storm has been the precedent for dewatering for many years. It uses historical data to determine which regions are at the highest flood risk based on expected precipitation volumes and probable intensity. Recent history has shown that extreme flooding events are becoming more common.
After several catastrophic hurricanes and other tragedies, professionals are suggesting this framework has become obsolete because it fails to consider the climate crisis. The probability of Hurricane Helene happening was not a 100-year event — it was closer to a 1,000-year storm that happened anyway.
Water volume is at an all-time high, especially in places many fail to consider, like atmospheric rivers. Traditional dewatering systems are not equipped to handle back-to-back onslaughts like recent trends show. Juggling the immense volume, uprooted soil and water infrastructure destruction is nearly impossible with older methods, like sump pumps, eductors and vacuum-based strategies.
Challenging Antiquated Methods in the Pump Industry
The pump workforce is responsible for adopting new practices to manage these deluges of precipitation around the world. Many assume simple solutions will be enough to fix these issues, such as installing larger pumps to handle the volume or installing just-in-time machinery.
However, these fail to consider the nuances and volatility of modern rain patterns. Climate change has made all severe weather events five times more common than they were in the last 50 years. Instead, employees must consider:
- Eliminating sized-for-the-site designs for more adaptable infrastructure.
- Having other backup plans, rather than relying on rentals exclusively.
- Collaborating with multiple vendors and suppliers to prevent logistical and supply chain overwhelm for essential equipment.
- Encouraging research on developing more efficient pumps to handle intense flows, rather than depending on size.
Actionable Insights for Future-Proofing Water Infrastructure
Building new dewatering systems requires several big-picture changes, including an industrial mindset shift and implementation of more climate-conscious equipment. These will foster more productive, preventive and proactive protocols for modern dewatering needs.
Required Changes in System Design
As seen in recent events in the West, cascading infrastructure is a monumental concern. It causes additional destructive problems beyond direct flooding, but redesigning how regions are constructed can help address the issue. For example, slope stabilization can reduce debris flows that frequently trigger mudslides and damage dewatering systems. Dewatering professionals must collaborate with geoengineers and related specialists to determine how communities can become stronger against these forces.
Other ideas include:
- Decentralizing water infrastructure, creating smaller networks of independent, automated pumps.
- Incorporating modular fixtures that are easily replaceable and scalable to accommodate future weather changes.
- Installing backup energy systems to ensure dewatering systems always have access to reliable and resilient power sources.
Embracing Innovation
Automation and smart controls, including sensor-based machines, are vital for expanding oversight on vulnerable communities and infrastructure. Manual pump activation is antiquated and has been replaced by remote operations that enable the workforce to respond faster and be more agile in emergencies. Being able to immediately leverage weather forecast information, flow rates and other metrics can hasten decision-making that would otherwise be spent traveling to the site. Eventually, it could save the most prepared regions millions of dollars and almost as much in gallons of water.
Updates to Preparedness Standards
Modern preparedness assumes these rainstorms will happen, regardless of what weather data suggestions. Before they occur, teams must conduct a full-system audit to assess the health of the pumps and connected assets, including pipes and inflow sources. These reviews can reveal potential points of failure during an emergency, such as not being able to discharge as much as expected or not having enough backup power sources.
Teams can perform these audits while implementing predictive analytics tools to forecast more intuitively. This way, they can see when atmospheric river flooding is more likely based on recent trends. Pump workforces can also use data to determine which partnerships to engage with immediately, including nearby municipalities or third-party water management software companies. Analytics can reveal what is most urgent and how to prioritize infrastructure reinforcement.
Overcoming the Storm
Ongoing weather challenges like the flooding in the western U.S. cannot continue. Enduring and recovering from extreme weather delays other societal, economic and systemic progress that needs to happen to establish a more sustainable and prepared future. The more time communities spend anticipating the unexpected rather than reacting only when it happens, the faster all parts of the world can build resilience against emergencies.
