LAWI100368 Technologies and processes in sanitary engineering

Type
course with continuous assessment
Semester hours
4
Lecturer (assistant)
Pressl, Alexander , Neunteufel, Roman , Ertl, Thomas , Stoica, Anca-Iulia , Arthofer, Patrick
Organisation
Sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control
Offered in
Wintersemester 2026/27
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

The lecture course “Technologies and Processes in Urban Water Management” (LAWI 100368) is part of the required module “Technologies in the Circular Economy.” This module, which is designed and conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Waste and Circular Economy, is based on the content of the module “Circular Economy and the Aquatic Environment” and, more specifically, on the lecture “Circular Urban Water and Waste Management.”
The knowledge of the course content from the course “Circular Urban Water and Waste Management” is a prerequisite for completing the course “Technologies and Processes in Urban Water Management,” and for pedagogical reasons, it is strongly recommended that students take the two modules—or courses—in this order: first the module “Circular Economy and Aquatic Environment” in the summer semester, followed by the course “Technologies in the Circular Economy” in the winter semester.


CONTENTS:
# Topic Area: Water Supply
- Water resources: Types, impacts, and resource protection
- Drinking water chemistry: Parameters, limit values, measurement methods
- Water abstraction: Construction and implementation, groundwater hydraulics
- Water treatment: Treatment objectives, processes, applications, limitations
- Microbiology: Contamination pathways, biofilm, disinfection processes
- Pumping technology: Pump types, efficiency, energy efficiency
- Water storage: Tank dimensioning, construction
- Distribution network: Dimensioning and pipeline network calculations
- Operation and management of water supply systems
- Applications relating to water legislation, including water demand calculations

# Topic Area: Wastewater
- Wastewater production, wastewater characteristics
- Water (and wastewater) legislation
- Municipal wastewater systems
- Wastewater treatment (mechanical, biological, physicochemical)
- Chemical principles of wastewater treatment
- Microbiological aspects of wastewater treatment
- Biological aerobic processes
- Biological anaerobic processes
- Extensive treatment processes, including small-scale wastewater treatment plants
- Sludge treatment, disposal, and recycling
- Water quality, environmental impact assessments
Previous knowledge expected

If you have any questions about the course materials, please contact Alexander Pressl (alexander.pressl@boku.ac.at).
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

--> Understanding the water use cycle, from the resource for drinking water production to the discharge of treated wastewater (cradle to cradle)
--> Understanding, describing, and evaluating all relevant components of water supply and wastewater treatment systems
--> Understanding, describing, and evaluating treatment technologies in water supply and wastewater treatment
--> Understanding and interpreting the fundamentals of management

# Examples from the field of water supply:
- Understanding and describing the qualitative and quantitative state of water resources, the relationships between different water resources and their associated raw water qualities, as well as the corresponding treatment requirements
- Ability to sketch the essential system components of water supply facilities and describe their functions, including typical design parameters
- Understanding and calculation of water chemistry examples (e.g., iron removal + manganese removal)
- Understanding and design of water disinfection (e.g., UV disinfection)
- Understanding and calculation of water treatment examples (e.g., design of membrane filtration)
- Understanding and calculating examples of water technology (e.g., pipe network calculations, tank sizing, pump sizing)
- Calculating and drawing a hydrological triangle to determine the direction of groundwater flow
- Understanding and calculating the optimal well capacity,
- Understanding and calculating water demand,
- Knowledge of management systems in the field of infrastructure, as well as the use and interpretation of key performance indicators for management decisions

# Example topic area: wastewater:
Expected learning outcomes:
– Knowledge of the objectives of integrated wastewater management, the types of wastewater, the constituents, and their sources in wastewater

Acquired competencies:
– Understanding of the wastewater management system and an understanding of the fundamental mass flows in wastewater management.

# Example topic area: Urban drainage:
Expected learning outcomes:
– Requirements for sewer systems
– Advantages and disadvantages of different drainage methods (combined, separate, and modified systems)
– Classification of wastewater types according to drainage systems
– Operating conditions and technology of special processes
– Natural stormwater management: objectives, principles, and planning fundamentals; system components and processes
– etc.

Acquired competencies:
– Understanding of the functions of drainage systems
– Identification of improper connections in the respective system
– Depiction of schematics for the most common combined sewer overflow structures and understanding of how they function
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.