ASSESSMENT OF WATER AND WASTE WATER IN RIVERSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD

Abstract

The Riverside Watershed Environmental Living Lab for Sustainability (RWELLS) is a research project initiated by D. Tom Iseley, the Director of CEMT program at IUPUI with assistance of Dr Dan Koo and two students Eminou Nasser and Jessica Rocho . Riverside neighborhood is a historic neighborhood that blossomed in the early years of the past century. This neighborhood is now subject to the urban decay, The data given by Census illustrates declining number of population, a shrinking income per household. Moreover The Riverside like many other areas in Indianapolis, it has an aged and poorly maintained underground utility system. Up to 25% of drinkable water is wasted because of the leakage in the pipes and line breaks; another 40% is infiltrated to the sewer system. Meters also need to be replaced. Such situation is unsustainable and costly for the community in the long run. RWELLS has many areas of consideration in the Riverside neighborhood. Such as employment, sustainable practices, but the main goal of this initia-tive is to assess the conditions of water and waste water systems in the Riv-erside neighborhood. This project intends to apply the principles of Asset Management and test their validity by using the Riverside living lab as a model. RWELLS will be a start point to bring entrepreneurship to the River-side neighborhood to encourage residents to start small businesses ( for ex. To change old meters to Automated Meter Readers AMR). RWELLS team is working with a wide network of partners, Polis Center, Imagis, and Citizen Energy Group to collect demographic and utilities data, interpret and analyze these data, and present practical solutions to the Riverside, especially those related to water and waste water utilities.