Exploring the relationship between mobile positioning data and wastewater flows: evidence from five Swiss catchments

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Urban Hydrology
• Data Science

Background:

• Urban drainage systems pose risks to human and environmental health.
• Traditional water quality monitoring is costly and lacks comprehensive data.
• Digitalization offers new data sources like mobile positioning data for wastewater analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between mobile positioning data and wastewater flows.
• To assess the feasibility of using mobile positioning data for urban drainage management.
• To identify challenges and potential improvements for this novel approach.

Main Methods:

• Utilized mobile positioning data from a major Swiss telecom provider.
• Analyzed data from five diverse Swiss catchments of varying sizes.
• Employed simple multiple linear regression models for initial analysis.

Main Results:

• Observed low to moderate correlations (R² 0-0.73) between mobile positioning data and wastewater production, varying significantly by catchment.
• Identified nonlinear effects suggesting the need for advanced predictive models.
• Highlighted data privacy concerns, particularly for smaller catchments.

Conclusions:

• Mobile positioning data shows potential for wastewater dynamics assessment but requires further development.
• Advanced modeling incorporating flow distances and travel times is necessary for reliable predictions.
• Domain-specific preprocessing and privacy-preserving techniques are crucial for practical application.