Gravity challenge waterways presentation

1. Sydney Water Challenge
Waterway Monitoring –
Drone/Satellite data
augmented by Artificial
Intelligence and Machine
Learning

2. Issue
The waterways of Sydney are highly
degraded and Sydney Water customers are
demanding better waterway management.
Sydney Water is positioning as leader in
providing liveability and amenity to
customers and improving environmental
value of waterway assets.

3. Our solution
Satellite and drone data will identify
issues early so that waterway health
improvement programs (WWHIP) can be
targeted. The success of improvement
programs can also be quantitatively
measured, with opportunities for
community and stakeholder (water
customer, regulators) engagement through
interactive online platforms and citizen
apps.

4. Value and benefits
 Improving ecological value of Sydney's waterways by reducing pollution run-off,
improving water quality
 Achieving Sydney Water's goal of "making every dollar count" through increasing the
efficiency of surveys and targeting programs, leading to reduced costs
 Reducing need for on-ground surveys, reducing risk of slips, trips and falls and the need
to visit hazardous sites
 Providing a quantitative, repeatable method of monitoring the effectiveness of waterway
health improvement programs
 Instilling a personal link between local communities and waterway assets, through online
interactive platforms where communities can view the progress of improvement programs
("before and after")

5. Our proposed process

6. Driving a
circular
water
economy
© Arup

7. Our project team
An interdisciplinary team of specialists from Arup, IBM and UTS
Dr Anne Kovachivich
Foresight and Innovation
Leader Australasia, Arup
Anne is a Sustainability Engineer with
over 18 years’ experience. She has
worked on many green building and
green infrastructure projects including
the cost benefit analysis for the 5
Million Trees program in Sydney and
the Cooling Singapore urban heat
mitigation program. Anne has a PhD
in hypersonic aerospace (UQ) and is
interested in the application of space
data to solve real world problems.
Julie Moriarty
Senior Water Engineer
Environment and
Resources, Arup
Shaun Kent
Buildings &
Foresight and
Innovation, Arup
Shaun is an electrical engineer
within Arup’s buildings team, he also
works with the Foresight and
Innovation team. Shaun is enthusiastic
about how technology can help shape
a better world, and advocates for
collaborative, cross-disciplinary
solutions which lead to outcomes that
add more than just monetary value.
Julie is a chartered engineer with 10
years' experience on water and energy
projects. She is passionate about
sustainability and working to
achieve sustainable
outcomes. Relevant to this challenge,
she has recent experience in project
managing a water quality project with
Sydney Water and will be assisting in
managing Sydney Water’s upcoming
Waterway Health Improvement
Program.

8. Our project team
An interdisciplinary team of specialists from Arup, IBM and UTS
Josh Millen
Environment, Energy
& Utilities, IBM
Josh Millen is a strategy consultant
and Associate Partner at IBM. Josh
helps Utility clients scale innovation
with a particular focus on redesigning
workflows around AI. Josh pioneered
AI projects like 'Sewer Spy' and
'lessons learned' at Water Utilities and
cognitive customer care at a large
energy retailer. Currently Josh is
working on vegetation management
projects aimed at reducing bushfire
ignition risk and other critical asset
condition assessment projects that
leverage AI to succeed.
Dr Brent Jacobs
Sustainable Futures,
UTS
With a background in agricultural
science and adaptive capacity and
management natural resources, Brent’s
current research interests include
resilience, vulnerability and adaptive
capacity of communities in the
development of catchment action
plans. He has contributed to
collaborative projects with ABARES,
ANU and CSIRO on spatial
optimisation and provision of
socioeconomic data to support CMA
investment decisions.
Elaine Pang
Australasia Water
Skills Network
Leader Arup
Elaine provides water planning advice
across a range of areas water resource
management, including urban
infrastructure, flood risk management,
and dam safety. Her broad experience,
spanning several sectors, informs her
ability to plan strategically as well as
connect solutions holistically to other
concerns in the overall context.