Glasgow City Council has announced plans to build a ‘smart canal’ that will utilise a digital surface water drainage system.
It has set up the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategy Drainage Partnership with Scottish Canals and Scottish Water to manage the £17 million project, which has been funded as part of the Glasgow Region City Deal and from the European Regional Development Fund.
The canal, officially named the North Glasgow Integrated Water Management System, will be created to mitigate flood risks and support regeneration in the north of the city.
It will make use of sensors and predictive weather technology to provide early warnings of heavy rain. This will prompt the moving of canal water from urban drainage ponds to granite channels that absorb it and create space for surface water run-off.
In turn it will reduce water levels in the canal by as much as 10cm to create the capacity for up to 55,000 cubic metres of floodwater. When the rain falls waters will be moved from residential and business areas into these stretches of the canal.
The main contractor on the project is Mackenzie Construction and the technology companies are Innovyse, a specialist in analytics software for the water industry, infrastructure assets company Aecom and systems integrator Fairfield Control Systems.
Development and connections
The scheme will make 110 hectares of the north of the city available for development and involve the Forth & Clyde Canal being connected to five new sites over the next 10-15 years.
Glasgow City Council Leader Susan Aitken said: "This is a fantastic day for Glasgow's Canal, as we mark the introduction of cutting edge technology that will both allow surface water in this part of the city to be managed, and allow the building of new homes and businesses on land that historically has been unfit for development.
“It is very exciting to see such smart technology in operation in Glasgow - one of very few examples in the world - and we can look forward to it playing a key role in the continued regeneration of Glasgow's canal and the north of the city."
Image from Glasgow City Council
