Water supply
Water supply systems can be differentiated between public and buildings systems.
Buildings water supply systems, in addition to supplying cold water, are also responsible for the production and distribution of domestic hot water, as well as for firefighting networks.
A water supply project includes the definition of layouts and the sizing of pipes, components and equipment.
Wastewater drainage
Wastewater is classified according to the source and quality of the water. Generally speaking, within the civil engineering field, they can be divided into 3 classes: domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater ande stormwater.
This subject is responsible for the definition of the piping network’s layout, which collects and conducts the effluents to their final destination, as well as for the sizing of the components that make up the drainage systems.
Ideally, the final destination should be a public drainage collector; however, in situations where the sewer drainage to a public system is unfeasible, either due to its inexistence or due to the distance from the place under study, it is necessary to install autonomous treatment systems. Industrial wastewater and stormwater sometimes lack complementary treatment components, in order to retain specific pollutants associated, for example, with a certain type of activity.
Stormwaters differ from the other effluents, once they contain a reduced pollutant load, being collected and transported by an independent network. Nowadays, solutions that promote natural drainage are favored, whether by conducting the water to places where it can recharge aquifers or by draining it to pre-existing water bodies. Thus, buildings stormwater drainage projects play an important role in urban drainage management, containing the drainage onto the public network and contributing to flood control.