Combined sewer overflows (CSO) can have a strong impact on the quality of surface waters. A common measure to reduce CSO is the construction of storage tanks. The objective of this study was to determine the required volume of a storage tank by means of a numerical long-term simulation and to assess uncertain input data. Particularly, the influence of the considered rain series’ length on the calculated storage volume was investigated. Engineering standards usually recommend the use of at least 10 to 15 years of rain series. Here, the hydraulic behaviour of the studied sewer system was simulated in a 30 year hydrodynamic simulation. Special effort was made to calibrate an available model by use of currently measured data. The quality of calibration was evaluated by means of the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient. The analysis of input data uncertainty revealed that applying a 10 year series results in tank volumes that differ between -12 % and +19 %, respectively from the dimensioning result achieved by applying the 30 year rain series.

In Berlin läuft seit April 2007 das BMBF-Forschungsprojekt SPREE2011, welches zum Ziel hat, eine neuartige Speichertechnologie für Mischwasserüberläufe zu entwickeln sowie Reinigungstechniken für die Mischwasserbehandlung zu erproben, die in Deutschland bisher nur aus anderen Anwendungsfällen bekannt sind. Auf diesem Wege soll ein direkter Beitrag geliefert werden zu den zukünftigen Zielen, die Stoffeinträge aus Misch- und Regenwasser in Gewässer zu minimieren.