Critical Water, Wastewater, and Thermal Infrastructure Development for a Resilient Neighborhood in War-Affected Ukraine

Abstract

The Central Ukrainian municipality of Tetiiv is experiencing an influx of migrants due to its relatively safe position amid the Russian invasion. Tetiiv, in collaboration with the Ukrainian NGO Vid Sertsya Budova, is building a new neighborhood to accommodate internally displaced people, refugees, war veterans, and local residents. The neighborhood will require water, wastewater, and thermal infrastructure that satisfies European Union requirements given Ukraine’s ambition to join the economic bloc. This thesis performs a pre-feasibility study to help Tetiiv and Vid Sertsya Budova create an optimal configuration of water, wastewater, and thermal infrastructure for the new neighborhood. For water infrastructure, the report calculates water consumption using the BREEAM framework, quantifies storage requirements, analyzes water quality, estimates rainwater harvesting potential, and identifies optimal water source locations within 30 km using the DRASTIC methodology combined with geospatial analysis. For wastewater infrastructure, the study estimated wastewater generation, analyzed different wastewater treatment options, and used a decision matrix to identify the most optimal wastewater system for the site, a moving bed biofilm reactor system. The thermal infrastructure study developed a conceptual heating system for the new neighborhood, incorporating ground-source heat pumps in each row house and single-family home, vertical boreholes, a thermal energy network, and a wastewater heating system for the multifamily co-living units. This study offers a blueprint for Ukraine and other regions recovering from urbicidal conflict and disaster to rebuild in alignment with the new climate paradigm.