UK Water Partnership Launches to Help Industry Contribute Globally

WIPAC MONTHLYThe Montlhy Update from Water Industry Process Automation & Control
www.wipac.org.uk Issue 2/2015

In this Issue
Editorial.............................................................................................................................. 3
Industry News..................................................................................................................... 4 - 9
Highlights of the news of the month from the global water industry centred around the successes of a few of the
companies in the global market
Opinion: We’ve got lots of data but don’t do anything with it.......................................... 10-11
In this month’s opinion piece the concept of the different types of data and its use to the Water Industry is examined
complete with case studies of how it is used in the modern water industry

Forward Thinking: Water & the Internet of Things............................................................. 12-13
In this article by Laurie Reynolds of Aquamatix the concept of the Internet of Things with reference to the Water
Industry is examined the diffrent areas of potential use and the technologies that area available.

Using Big Data to predict Urban Water Demand................................................................ 14-16
In this article, orginally printed in Water Online the use of Big Data to predict Urban Water Demanad is discussed with
particular reference to the used of ANN Models.
Workshop Report: Smart Wastewater Networks.................................................................. 17-19
The CIWEM Wastewater Networks workshop took place on the 18th February and was a resounding success. In this
report from the workshop the concepts and case studies that were presented are summarised
Workshops, Conferences & Seminars................................................................................... 20-21
The higlights of the conferences and workshops in the coming months

WIPAC Monthly is a publication of the Water Industry Process Automation & Control Group. It is produced by the group
manager and WIPAC Monthly Editor, Oliver Grievson. This is a free publication for the benefit of the Water Industry and please
feel free to distribute to any who you may feel benefit.
All enquries about WIPAC Monthly, including those who want to publish news or articles within these pages, should be directed
to the publications editor, Oliver Grievson

From the Editor
Sometimes the Water Industry can be a very confusing place. There are, as with every industry, the highs and the lows
the good things and the bad. I am typing this editorial this month from a lovely hotel in Istanbul at the conclusion of
the WEX Global conference. Last night was the gala dinner and awards ceremony where the city of Santander won an
award for their Smart Water/Smart City approach, it was a concept that was assisted by FCC Aqualia and it is a model that
should be followed. Over the past few days i have, as is my passion, talked data to death, talked the Smart Solution to
anyone that will listen and talked about the need to know what we want in terms of data & information management It
has been amazingly encouraging talking to companies such as Vitens who are charging ahead in their concepts and lead-
ing the word in what they are doing. However as with any development their is a nervousness and their is the concept
of self- questioning that says “Am i doing the right thing?” There is a risk associated here and of course “What happens
if i get things wrong” It is not stopping a company such as Vitens and as a result they are not only going to be a national
leader but a global leader in what they are doing. What we as a gloabl industry must do is come together to help then with
their ideas. The global water industry is seen as a competition and in some ways it is but in others it shouldn’t be and as
an industry we should collaborate more to develop the good ideas.
One of the other good ideas from a leading company is the Portugese Utility Company, EPAL. A few years ago one of
their number championed non-revenue water loss and came up with the system WONE. The particular person who
championed its development does not call it a “Smart” solution and resists any words from others who want to call it one. Personally i’d call it intelligent but
in the terms of common sense. Whatever it is and whatever you call it though it has had results. Non Revenue Water in Lisbon has dropped from around the
24% mark to around the 7% mark and there is a targeted asset management approach to the way the Water Infrastructure is managed. Not content with this
though EPAL have moved forwards yet again and have developed the “Water Beep” system for their customers. It is basically a low cost water management
tool for their customers that empowers the customer to actively manage their domestic water consumption. The benefits of course for EPAL is that it uses the
customer as a “sensor” to detect customer side leakage. When you get to a level as low as 7% the proortion that this loss represents becomes significant. All
in all the customer helps the water company and as a result the customer side leakage is reducted. This in turn lowers the bills if it is an issue. The customer
and the water company working in union together. It is a new concept that fits very well into the potential future of the “Internet of Things” and the use of
non specific technology in the Water Industry.
Outside of the conference circuit normality though we have the launch of the UK Water Partnership tomorrow night and this is the big hope and the big drive
for the UK Water Industry to “contribute” to the global water market. It comes out of the UKWRIP report “HTechO - Tapping the Potential” and my thoughts
are that it is vital that the UK Water Industry comes together, collaborates internally and we see what the industry has to offer as a whole. The reputation of
the industry is riding on this and the report talked about the knowledge and the strong consultancies that the industry has to offer. I would add to this the
specialisms in instrumentation, especially to my mind flow and quality instrumentation. The industry has alot to ffer the global market and i am hoping that
the UK Water Partnership can gather us all together to “market” these specialisms to the world. If we don’t, and as highlighted by the report we have a vast
amount to lose. I, for one, have stuck my hand in the air as a big supporter of the intiative and am looking forward to the conference, exhibition, roundtable
or whatever event that the UK Water Partnership brings to the table and will make the group aware of what is going on and the opportunities that result.
So when will the Global Water Industry rollercoaster ride ever stop, in all likelyhood it won’t of course but in time with the efforts of all of the companies that it
involves it is bound to change. There are opportunities abound and with the concepts of Smart Cities and Smart Energy growing and growing the major players
may change, we see the “traditional” wastewater treatment model turn into a resource recovery model and maybe this is the way that the industry will go. It
is the age old “factory” approach that is reinvented time and time again in different guises and in somewya things don’t change. To use the old management
adage “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” and this is fundamental to every industry including the water industry. It was said by William Edwards
Demming an American Engineer and realistically we as a Water Industry measure but don’t understand how we are operating and so can easily say that we
fail to manage the system that we operate. If the “Factory” approach is going to be taken not only in the Water Industry but in the golbal utilities industry our
understanding of the way that we operate needs to improve.
Have a good month,
Oliver

Sensing in Water 2015 (SiW 2015) will be the 3rd biennial conference held by the Sensors for Water Interest Group (SWIG), building on the success of its
predecessors. In 2013 over 170 delegates attended over the 2 days of the conference, including water companies, regulators, researchers and manufacturers.
The main theme for SiW 2015 is how using sensors and instrumentation can help to deliver water company outcomes in AMP6 and over the next 25 years and help
them deliver service be it to the customers, supply, the environment or internally within the company.
SWIG is seeking abstracts from end users, regulators, researchers and manufacturers of water sensors & related technology on the following themes:
• Serving the customers - communications and communicating with the customer.
• Serving supply - potable water treatment and distribution.
• Serving the environment – monitoring and control of wastewater collection and treatment.
• Serving the company – managing assets, people and processes.
For consideration in the programme for SiW 2015, please send an abstract (100 words max) to rosa.richards@swig.org.uk stating which theme your presentation
would fit into.
Deadline for abstract submission: 31 March 2015
Page 4
Industry News
The UK Water Partnership Launches.....
The UK Water Partnership has been launched at an event that made me more nervous than ever about the intiative as a whole. The partnership is something
that was born out of the UKWRIP report HTechO Tapping the Future and is led by the dyanmic Mark Lane. As a result it was hosted at the headquarters of Pinsent
Masons which is the normal home of the WET Events. There were positives about the event but also some alarm bells were suredly raised as well. But let me
take a step back and say what the UK Water Partnership actually is.
The aim of the organisation is actually a group of people from industry professionals, to suppliers, to academics all joined up in three specific areas and headed
up by a Leadership Council which is headed by Lord Chris Smith. The aims of the partnership are two fold:
1) To improve understanding,cooperation, and coordination across the diverse water community allowing the UK to respond more effectively yo the challeges
of global water secuurityand the need for resilience in a changing envrionmentis
2) To more effectively deliver and implement research outputs and innovation, so that the UK wins a greater share of the global water market.
All of this is going to be championed in three areas taking the development of research, development and innovation throughout the process from the initial
Research & Innovation Community of the Water Partnership which is there to identify the areas that require long term research and disseminate out to the
community through the Development & Inmplementation community which is there to drive and simulate innovation in the user community through to the
Comercialisation and Economic Growth Community which takes the proven ideas and champion them on a global basis.
Now all of this in principle works and there is a real feel of excitement in this area but this wasn’t necessarily translated in the launch event. The positives were
that there were plenty of people of significance in the UK Water Industry and about 150-200 present. We all retired to the auditorium to listen to some speeches
including a speech from Mark Lane who is leading things and Lord Chris Smith who chaired. Their presentations were good and inspiring and talked about the
need for innovation & collaboration in a competitive world. In particular Lord Chris Smith hit the mark when he talked about the industry just misssing the point
and not quite getting the development it perhaps deserves. There were other presentations that resembled this remark and the wheels started to come off when
one of the presenters talked about the need for the Water Industry becoming more energy focused and developing more in this area. This is where I became
nervous and felt that Lord Chris Smith was right, it missed the mark. Of course those in the industry will realise the point that we have been generating energy
for years and if there is anything in the industry that we are really good at it is that, The main focus now of course is what is next. That particular presenter felt
slightly out of touch which is worrying considering that he was talking at a water industy focused event.
There were other causes for concern for me around the conference that is going to be organised in 2016 which is fantastic but the news that there are no plans
to start the planning yet a cause for concern and the potential assisting organisation, to me, a very large concern. I expressed these concerns and the need
to make it a conference & exhibition to match some of the global leaders like WEFTEC, IFAT & SIngapore International Water Week. To be frank it needs to
compete at this level in order to be considered a success. In order to do this it maybe necessary to set up another section of the partnership just for this area of
the business. The most important part of this though is that it needs to accessible for all, not just the upper echelons of companies who will attend. It needs
to be a powerful technical conference, a powerful exhibition with a business focus and the glitz and the glamour to provide that “X factor” that will make sure
that people come back next time.
There are things that put the mind to rest though and the Research & Innovation Community having a strong leader like Tom Stephenson is one and the influence
that it has is another, the people present at the event were there to communicate, collaborate and press the flesh and most of the significant communities in the
business were there. As was stated in the UKWRIP report the UK Water Partnership must suceed and in order for it to do so there is a significant amount of work
to be done. At the moment, from what i have seen it needs a large amount of support to do so and it needs the full support of the UK Water Community. Despite
what i have seen this evening I have the confidence that it can succeed and I’ve thrown my collective hat into the ring, i hope many in the global community will
follow and we will see what the future holds.
Call for Papers - Sensing in Water 2015

Technological breakthroughs driving growth of water-quality
monitoring
Advances in technology, including miniature sensors and robotic fish, are leading a rapid advance in online smart monitoring of the quality of water in both
municipal and industrial systems across the world.
A new Insight Report from BlueTech® Research* states that water quality issues and monitoring technologies in developing markets are likely to drive double
digit global growth in the coming years. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market.
The water analysis industry has seen dramatic growth in recent years due to rapid rises in population and increasing concerns over water contamination. The
call for safe, clean water has led to tighter, more stringent water quality regulations.
Equipment in a water system can fail, leading to a change in water quality. The use of smart water networks is one way in which utilities are seeking holistic
approaches to water management, within which they aim to identify health and operational risks, either before an incident develops or within the shortest
possible response time.
New developments in sensor technologies currently focus on two types of technologies:
1. Biosensors for the detection of bacteria and other microorganisms
2. Optical sensors.
Figure 1 shows an overview of the developmental stages of new technologies, the results expected from each stage and some examples of companies
currently at each stage of commercial development.
Figure 1: Developmental stages of monitoring technologies
Biosensors
Until recently, the development of online monitoring equipment focused on the detection and analysis of physico/chemical compounds. Now, there is a shift
towards sensors that can rapidly and reliably detect harmful microorganisms such as Legionella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia and E. coli. The rapid and accurate
detection of micro-organisms is of particular value in the drinking water sector. Currently, analysis still relies on slow culturing methods or polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) methods, both of which can only be performed in a laboratory.
Optical sensors
The arrival of solid-state electronics and small high-powered light sources (LEDs, laser diodes, small Xenon lamps) has triggered a rapid development of
optical sensor technology during the last decade. The most interesting aspect of the current generation of optical sensors is that they operate without the
need for chemicals and use components that are less prone to fouling.
When replacing wet-chemical analysers, the elimination of the use of chemicals also eliminates the production of waste products during the analysis. This is
a major advantage optical sensors have over wet-chemical analysers.
New developments in the field of optical sensors focus on the following approaches:
• Development of luminescence-based technologies based on the success of the Luminescent Dissolved Oxygen (LDO) probes, to measure other
important parameters such as pH
• Use of optical imaging techniques, for example, in the detection and classification of particles and micro-organisms
• Use of unconventional physical properties as water quality indicators (for example, refractive index)
• Contact-free measurement (remote sensing)
Recent developments in water quality sensor networks include:
• Miniaturised sensors for monitoring colour, sum organics (COD, TOC, DOC) and turbidity in a drinking water distribution network (s::can, AT; Vitens
Water Company, NL; funded by the European Commission)
• Non-mobile wireless sensors located in ponds and streams to measure various parameters such as turbidity, salinity, pH and nitrate (University of
Minnesota, USA)
• Robotic fish equipped with tiny chemical sensors to locate sources of potentially hazardous pollutants in the water, such as leaking underwater
pipelines (University of Essex, UK; funded by the European Commission)
Maintenance requirements and battery life are currently two important barriers to the successful large-scale implementation of smart water quality sensor
networks.

HR Wallingford and Siemens announce technology partnership
Detectronic help Water companies avoid 203 incidents in 2014
HR Wallingford has announced a strategic partnership with infrastructure and technology specialist, Siemens, in a move to radically boost infrastructure
monitoring solutions for the water industry.
The technology partnership will see the organisations work together to help the industry meet demands now and in the future, and includes the development
and delivery of innovative real-time solutions for dams and flood defence infrastructure.
Providing IT and monitoring expertise, Siemens will work alongside HR Wallingford in a variety of critical areas, including offering an enhanced level of
information for asset investment decisions, improved emergency planning capabilities, as well as developing advanced preventative maintenance, helping to
reduce more costly reactive maintenance.
Paul Hingley, business manager for plant data services at Siemens UK, comments:
“Through this strategic partnership, we’re able to combine the engineering expertise of Siemens and the 65 years of sector experience of HR Wallingford,
ensuring we can equip the water industry with the right solutions to deliver optimum efficiency, meet future challenges and ultimately, ensure the safety of UK
dam structures.”
Based in the UK, HR Wallingford has an international reputation for engineering innovation, delivering practical solutions for complex water-related challenges
through state-of-the-art physical modelling laboratories and numerical modelling tools.
The technology partnership will deliver real time infrastructure monitoring for dams (RTIM-d) involving a detailed assessment of the issues affecting the
dam site, followed by the design and specification of a bespoke system of third party sensors, continuous intelligent monitoring and modular consequence
modelling tools to enable smarter asset management.
Craig Goff, business manager for dams and reservoirs at HR Wallingford added:
“Through the development and delivery of our reservoir safety, asset reliability, breach and evacuation modelling software we strive to improve the
surveillance, asset management and safety of dam infrastructure and we’re delighted to announce Siemens as a major partner in this work. At HR Wallingford,
we are dedicated to delivering innovative solutions based on specific site needs and look forward to building on this to drive efficiencies for water companies
through our technology partnership with Siemens.”
Flood and pollution prevention specialists, Detectronic, have helped seven UK water utilities prevent 203
flooding and contamination incidents during 2014.
Detectronic’s technologically advanced flow measurement systems are installed to measure, record, report
and react to depths and flow rates in waste water channels and pipes. These include sewers, storm drains and
combined sewer overflows as well as highways and land drainage channels.
Explains Jen Gorniak, Business Development Manager at Detectronic: “Between 1st January and 31st
December 2014, our dedicated data centre screened 25,780 high-level alarms and delivered 203 pollution-
preventing early warning intervention reports.
“Delivering continuous data screening and analytical services, seven days a week, our data centre analysts
interpret and report near real-time data from our own sewer network monitors, and those of our competitors.
By comparing new data with historical flow, level and environmental data, Detectronic systems and analysts
together monitor what is happening in Clients’ sewers and drainage networks. “
Continues Jen: “We quickly identify anomalies and deliver intervention reports directly to Client service
delivery teams. Further value is added by in-house processes which enable us to mine data for subtle trend changes to provide early-warning of potential
blockages together with proactive intervention recommendations for our Clients.”
“With each pollution costing an industry average £50,000, the pollutions (and flooding) we have helped Clients prevent in 2014 represent significant savings
against potential cost risks of over £10 millon. Clients using Detectronic’s data service currently experience a cost benefit ratio of +25.”
Concludes Jen: “We understand just how expensive and damaging flooding and pollution can be for our Clients and their customers which is why our focus for
2015 will be to enable water companies, stakeholders and operations teams to work more efficiently, improve compliance, reduce costs and increase customer
satisfaction.

i2O Water wins Rushlight Award for clean technology
Boulting wins award for 4.9m kWh energy savings p.a.on Thames
Water pump station upgrade
i2O Water, the Smart Pressure Management technology company, has been recognised for its excellence in clean technology by winning the prestigious
Rushlight Water Management Award.
The Rushlight Awards bring together leading organisations developing new clean technologies throughout the UK and Ireland - i2O Water previously won a
Rushlight Award in 2013. The Awards are supported by a wide range of organisations, including the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Carbon Trust,
Technology Strategy Board and Environment Agency.
The award follows the introduction of i2O’s Smart Pressure Management platform in 2014 which enables water companies to optimise the performance of
their water distribution networks.
Conceived and developed by data scientists and engineers in Southampton, UK, i2O’s technology combines network intelligence, tools for remotely managing
pressure and advanced automation capabilities that learn the characteristics of water flow and pressure throughout distribution networks and intelligently
adjust pressures to remove the excesses that accelerate leakage and burst frequency.
i2O’s technology is currently used by 66 utilities around the world to save more than 235 million litres of water every day.
The Smart Pressure Management technology provides everything water utilities require to understand and manage water pressures on a single, scalable and
rapidly deployed platform. It allows utilities of all sizes to use a range of different pressure management strategies to achieve cost effective improvements in
leakage and network management.
The technology extends infrastructure lifetimes, improves customer service, and significantly reduces operating costs, energy consumption and wasted water
through bursts and leaks.
Andrew Burrows, CTO and co-founder of i2O Water, commented:
“This award recognises the effort i2O has put into creating technologies that allow water providers of all sizes and locations to reduce leakage and improve
network management. Utilities are wrestling with issues such as population growth, urbanisation and greater economic activity in areas where supply is already
limited. i2O has demonstrated that it has a major role to play in improving network resilience and driving environmental and efficiency improvements around
the world.”
Specialist in pump system optimisation Boulting will be awarded the inaugural prize for Project of the Year for its work on Thames Water’s Littleton pump station
at the upcoming 2015 Pump Centre Conference on May 14.
BOU013 - Boulting collects inaugural award at Pump Centre Conference1Boulting achieved the award for its ongoing work at Thames Water’s 90 year old Little-
ton Raw Water Pump Station (RWPS). The brief for the Littleton project required Boulting Pump Management to increase the performance of the site in terms
of reliability, efficiency, capacity and automation, whilst still maintaining its 1920’s character. .
The resultant annual energy savings from the upgrade project are predicted to exceed 4.9 million kilowatt hours with a corresponding annual energy cost
reduction close to £0.5 million.
In January Boulting were awarded one of the key AMP6 Control and Automation services framework contracts from Thames Water, over the 2015-2020 invest-
ment periods. The contract win is for the Lot 1a agreement which covers manufacture and related system integration of Motor Control Centres, and the Lot 1b
agreement, which includes complex systems integration projects.
The appointment comes as a result of Thames Water’s new approach to supply management, which focuses on creating a collaborative supplier community
that encourages innovation and low whole life cost. As a strategic partner, Boulting will support Thames Water’s AMP6 capital alliance eight2O, the operations
team and other aspects of the water company’s capital programme.
The project is just one example of the total optimisation solutions that Boulting’s Pump Management Team provides. This will be the focus of the company’s
presence at the Telford conference where Boulting will have two booths: S23 and the Project of the Year stand.
As well as pump system optimisation services, Boulting also specialises in supplying systems integration, low voltage (LV) motor control centres, switchgear,
control panels, telemetry services and full mechanical and electrical installation.
“When optimising a station like Thames Water’s Littleton, some companies would only look at the pump,” explained Brian Conway, Pump Management Director
of the Boulting Group. “We have the expertise and equipment to evaluate performance from ‘source to tap’. In addition we utilised our capability to design,
manufacture and install the solution. By offering a fully integrated approach we are confident on delivering our predictions.”
“Thames Water originally estimated the Littleton RWPS upgrade would take at least two years, but Boulting expects to complete the project in half that time,”
continued Conway.
“At the Pump Centre Conference we will be exhibiting the innovative services and expertise that went into making the Littleton project such a success.”
Page 7

Four ISA Partners Renew Their Agreements With ISA For 2015
The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced recently the renewal of four ISA partnership agreements for 2015. The four companies renewing their
partnership contracts with the Society for the year are:
Beamex, a global leader in developing equipment, software, systems and services for the calibration and maintenance of process instruments (ISA’s Strategic
Partner for Calibration)
FDT Group, an international, not-for-profit corporation consisting of leading manufacturers who manage the FDT Technology standard. FDT standardizes the
communication and configuration interface between all field devices and host systems for the process and factory industries independent of the communication
protocol. (an ISA Promotional Partner)
Eaton, a global technology leader in power management solutions that make electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power operate more efficiently, reliably, safely
and sustainably (an ISA Promotional Partner)
Ultra Electronics, 3eTI, a leading provider of certified, cyber-secure network solutions for critical information systems, infrastructure and industrial automation
(an ISA Promotional Partner)
“ISA is pleased to announce the renewal of these four significant and valuable partnerships,” says Jennifer Infantino Halsey, ISA’s Director of Marketing &
Communications. “ISA’s partners have connected with our members and customers in meaningful ways by providing knowledge and insight; of course, they’ve
offered information about their product and service offerings, but they have also contributed valuable resources focused on best practices and core challenges
that matter to our audience. We look forward to building on those principles in 2015, and we’re proud to call these companies our partners in that effort.”
Leaders at these four companies echoed these comments and made clear they recognize the value and advantage of partnering with ISA.
“Beamex is proud to continue to be ISA’s Premier Strategic Partner for Calibration in 2015,” comments Raimo Ahola, CEO, Beamex Group. “In the past year, we
developed many synergies between our two organizations by combining our technical expertise. We have contributed an enormous amount of time, resources
and knowledge to give ISA members access to the most advanced calibration tools and processes in the world.”
Ahola says as Beamex celebrates its 40th year in business, “we look forward to the next 40, collaborating with industry-leading professionals, and staying
connected to the marketplace, experts and our customers. Through our relationship with organizations like ISA, we continue to develop the most robust,
integrated calibration solutions on the market.”
Shannon Foos, Director of Marketing for FDT North American and an FDT Executive Committee Member, states that the “diverse ISA community is ideal for
discussing the broad applicability of FDT Technology. Our continued partnership with ISA provides us with the communication outlets necessary to share
network and device integration strategies with the automation and control community.
“As we build upon our standards-setting collaboration with ISA to focus on sharing best practices,” Foos says, “we can help the automation community
streamline device and network management efforts for the process, hybrid and factory markets.”
Steven Toteda, Vice President and General Manager of Eaton’s wireless business, states: “We have a long-standing relationship with ISA in building marketing
programs that successfully reach our target automation professionals. And with ISA’s acquisition of Automation.com, we will be able to leverage our partnership
and expand our digital footprint.”
“As 3eTI continues to advance, expand and deliver secure standards-compliant solutions that enable more efficient industrial control systems, we particularly
value our strategic relationship with ISA,” says Benga Erinle, President of Ultra Electronics, 3eTI. “Our mutual objectives are being achieved through programs
that are not available elsewhere, and under the guidance of our experts who understand the industry’s challenges and are uniquely qualified to address them.”
The ISA Corporate Partnerships Program offers companies a customized, tailored approach to sponsorship within the organization. Partnership packages include
year-round promotion, prominent association-wide access and recognition, and turnkey service from a dedicated team of professionals. Companies can bundle
ISA products and services with marketing opportunities, providing a more streamlined approach to corporate sponsorship.
“Our partnerships program extends beyond simple marketing; and it incorporates more than an advertising buy, although advertising is often a part of our part-
nership packages,” explains Halsey. “We work with our partners to truly understand their goals and we craft packages that are based on creating value for their
prospective customers through our channels of communication. We believe that when companies become thought leaders in a market, they will experience a
much higher degree of success as a result of that leadership.”
Founded in 1945, the International Society of Automation is a leading, global, nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for automation by helping
over 30,000 worldwide members and other professionals solve difficult technical problems, while enhancing their leadership and personal career capabilities.
Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, ISA develops standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and
technical articles; and hosts conferences and exhibitions for automation professionals. ISA is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation
Page 8

ABB is providing 165 AquaProbe electromagnetic insertion fl owmeters for a USD 400 million environmental improvement project in the Indian state of
West Bengal. The fl owmeters will help the local utility upgrade its distributionnetwork for potable water.
The project is part of a governmental effort to reverse the environmental degradation in India’s largest cities. Based on data from the flowmeters, the utility
plans to reduce system losses, improve effi ciencies, and lay the groundwork for design and distribution decisions. Tejbir Singh, ABB’s Marketing & Business
Development Manager in the area, notes that AquaProbe fl owmeters are well-established for use in clean water applications worldwide. This fact helped tip
the customer decision toward AquaProbes as the fl owmeter of choice.
“AquaProbe insertion flow meters permit installation without interrupting normal water supply,” says Singh. “AquaProbe fi nds application in existing water
distribution systems where no provisions for fl owmeters were originally made and where a full-bore fl owmeter would be prohibitively expensive.”Line sizes
possible range from about 8 to 315 inches (200 - 8000 mm). Additional benefi ts of the AquaProbe fl owmeters include bi-directional operation, AC or DC power,
and compatibility with AquaMaster and WaterMaster transmitters. Options include environmental friendly wind/ solar power and features like on-board data
loggers and access via GSM networks.
Singh says that the project bodes well for further ABB flowmeter installationsin the area’s emerging clean water infrastructure development.
ABB Flow Meters Upgrade Potable Water Distribution in India
South West Water: plant breakdown, telemetry failures & poor
management led to £40K fine
Exeter Crown Court heard last week how a combination of plant break down, telemetry failures and poor management on the part of South West Water result-
ed in Woodbury’s Polly Brook becoming contaminated with poor quality sewage, which subsequently led to the death of a number of fish.In a case brought by
the Environment Agency, South West Water admitted to two charges, namely by allowing sewage effluent that had not been fully treated to pollute the stream
and also failing to notify the Agency of the problems with the treatment process at the Woodbury based sewage treatment works.The Environment Agency was
first alerted to the pollution by two members of the public on 28 and 29 August 2013.After investigating the watercourse in question, the Environment Agency
subsequently found that the conditions of the permit had been breached. It was found that two stages of the sewage treatment process were causing issues.
The first stage involved the aeration treatment which, when working effectively, ensures that sewage does not turn septic.
However, in August 2013, this key part of the treatment was found to have failed. A further stage sees sewage pass through reed beds for further treatment
and filtration purposes.The Court heard how the works’ filtration system had been temporarily out of action during the period in which the pollution occurred.
These issues resulted in a breach of the permit conditions, which require South West Water to ensure that the treatment works operate correctly and to notify
the Environment Agency of any problems that might affect sewage quality. The permit conditions also require that treated sewage must be of a standard that
does not cause adverse pollution or environmental harm.
Peter Ball from the Environment Agency said:“We received two reports of pollution from members of the public who had noticed sewage fungus and dead fish
in Polly Brook. However, South West Water did not notify us of issues as required by the terms of their permit.”
An ecological survey was undertaken, which concluded that there was a detrimental impact on the invertebrate fauna of the stream as a result of the Wood-
bury sewage treatment discharge and significant changes to the wider ecology of the stream.South West Water was fined £40,000 for exceeding the numerical
discharge limits set out in the permit and £7,500 for failing to report this to the Environment Agency. South West Water was also ordered to pay £3,200 in costs.
Page 9
United Water Selects Sensus Technology For Services-Based Smart
Water Network Solution
One of the largest U.S. water utilities to deploy Sensus technologies to improve leak detection, non-revenue water and customer service
Sensus is deploying and managing a smart communication network for United Water (UW). One of the nation’s largest utilities and wastewater providers, UW
is a subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, a world leader exclusively dedicated to the sustainable management of resources. The solution, which includes the
Sensus FlexNet™ system, 325,000 smart endpoints and Software as a Service (SaaS), will help the utility provide sustainable water solutions for its New York
and New Jersey customers.
United Water selected the Sensus FlexNet system to more effectively track water use through on demand meter reads, leak identification and water theft
detection, three common causes of non-revenue water.
“We value our partnership with United Water and support its dedication to customer satisfaction and the superior performance of its network,” said Dan
Pinney, director, Global Water Marketing at Sensus. “The FlexNet communication system easily integrates with existing systems. That means lower network
maintenance and operating costs associated with deploying an extensive network infrastructure.”
The Sensus FlexNet system is a long-range radio network that serves as a dedicated and secure two-way communications highway and requires less
infrastructure than competing solutions. The network is a primary reason for United Water’s selection, as is Sensus’ superior managed service offerings.
“This project is a win-win for the environment and customers,” said David Stanton, president of United Water’s Regulated Business. “It will help to secure
increasingly scarce resources for the region, accelerate our trend of reducing water lost from our distribution systems and improve the experience of our
customers by providing greater billing accuracy.

Opinion:
We’ve got lots of data.....
....but don’t do anything with it
What we can reliably say is that there is lots of data in the Water Industry, in the UK alone we produce 300 million pieces of operational data and this doesn’t
include the data that is produced by customers whose bills are set on dumb meters. With Smart Water Meters [ecoming more and proliferant this is set to
increase even further. The problem I think is that we don’t even know what sort of data we have let alone what information we want. This produces a major
disconnect in the industry, and, knowking what it wants to do and how it operates. So in the next page or two I am going to briefly outline what data types i see
that exist and what they can be used for. The major data types that i see are:
Operational data - This is the data that we, as an operational business, collect in the field. This is the data that we get from both the basic and the complicated
sensors in the field and can be used to alert of a problem for things such as float switches or in the future things such as event duration monitoring or from
sensors that monitor water quality in the distribution & collection networks and all of the above. The one thing that operational data is though is short term,
it monitors the hear and now and tell us how the assets that we operate are running.
Asset Data - This is the data that we collect about the assets that we install be it in a big concrete bos that turns into an activated sludge plant to the instru-
ments and control systems that are central to the future of the Water Industry. If asset data is incomplete then (a) the operational data can become less
valuable through incorrect operational and maintenance but (b) the asset data is fundamentally flawed as the asset management system will eventually fall
apart because there is no record of the assets. Asset data is medium to long term data and it should be used to make sure that the assets that we have do not
deteriorate into a broken mess through lack of attention
Customer Data - It seemes obvious to know what customer data actually is. A fair punt of a description is “Do we know how much the customer uses ?(through
metering) and do we know where to send the bill. This is probably the view of the Water Industry of 20 years ago, possibly even 10 but it can’t be the view of
the customer moving forwards. Now the customers opinion matters, their behaviours matter and their satisfaction certainly matters as any dissastifaction can
affect the bottom line through SIM scores.
So defining the types of data what does this actually mean and where are we going right and wrong for each category.
In terms of asset data I have two casing points to make. The first was when i was starting a previous job to my current one and I sat in a meeting when asset
management was being discussed and I spoke, almost definaltely out of turn and said - “Do we really know what assets we have?” The most emphatic answer
from the senior managers that were present was of course we do. So i tested this theory by asking a question about the new £65 million treatment centre that
we holding the meeting at. The question was - looking at the asset data system tell me about the activated sludge plant that we are not sitting more than half a
mile away from. So they looked....it 92,000m3
. Good that’s a start....how many lanes are, from the system?.....one, that’s not right. I asked the question to make
a point, the treatment works was new but the company had spent £65million and the asset data was incomplete. A process engineer could and would use that
information in the future and in fact I did but for the system to fall down so early meant problems for the future.
The next case study is one from my current job. Starting the job about three years ago i was confronted with the fact that I had no data about the assets that I
was expected to manage, what i did have was the current certification status amd when it was due next. Nobody had been in post for a period of a year and the
asset base had suffered. Over the next three months I put together a full asset list and found out that the routine operational and maintenance jobs were not
being done, they were down at 20% completion. As a result the assets were failing and the relaibility of the operational data was poor, over 17% of the data was
being lost on a regular basis. A shaky asset data base meant a shaky asset performance. The time taken to put together a list of all of the assets and completion
KPIs on the routine tasks has meant that the number of failing flow meters has decreased to a minimum, the completion percentages of the routine operational
and maintenance tasks are at nearly 100% and the data quality coming from the instruments themselves has risen from a low of 83% to a current high of 98.6%.
The moral of the story is that to get the best perfromance out of the assets it is necessary to put the hard work in and know about the assets that you have. It is
necessary to know what they are and when they are due to asset life expire in advance. In this way it is much easier to guarantee the data is going to be reliable
enough to believe. If this data is reliable then this can be used to improve the operational performance of the asset base and improve the operational data.
This is the situation on treatment works where the majority of assets are very visibile and the situation is poor. When it comes to the water or wastewater
network the situation can be even more dire. When i worked in a previous job the area that i was in had a leakage percentage of around 70-80% on a area of the
water distribution network. There were manholes on the network but the question was asked - “Where does the water distribution pipe run?” The nswer that
came back was that nobody knew. There was a point in time when there was a sudden availability of resource. This gave me the opportunity to do two things
(a) to map the route of the distribution pipeline and (b) to get the resource to open up all the inspection manholes and find out where all the leaks where. The
result of this asset capture and inspection survey was to reduce the water loss of the whole area to as little as 10% at least temporarily before the pressure in
the pipe caused the leaks to develop in different areas. The moral of this story is that short capture can work and bring results but it doesn’t necessarily repair
the problems with bad asset design,
The second area from above that i mentioned is operational data and there is a direct link between the asset data and operational data. Asset data is medium to
long term and as the asset expires then the decision as to whether or not replace it must be taken. The cost benefit of this replacement will very much depend
upon the influence that operational data has on the asset. Is the operational data that the asset collects worth it. If it is then the asset should be replaced. If
not then there is a question as to whether or not the asset should exist. Operational data is very much about the hear and now and every single instrument or
control system should be defined about what data and information the organisation uses. If the value of the information that is fed by the data and by proxy
the instrument or sensor that feeds the data then instrumentation will be operated and maintained to keep that asset in service as long as it is asset captured
correctly.
What do I mean by this......
Page 10

Quite literally an operator turns up to site and on his toughpad is the current status of the treatment works. data such as sludge age, discharge concentrations
and power consumption. The operator sees exactly what changes are needed makes the changes and moves onto the next treatment works. He has a chance to
operate rather than firefight. The operator understands that the information comes from the instruments that are on the treatment works. The alternative on
the network is that a pumping station comes around for the routine six monthly clean, the operator in the control centre looks at the camera feed and realises
that the well doesn’t need to be cleaned and cancels the job. Another pumping station there is a realisation that the vibration sensor on a pump is skhaking a
little too much and raises an alert. The operator in the control room looks at the wet well and sees it is full of rag via a similar video camera, it is three months
before the routine clean is needed. As a result the clean is brought forward and a routine check of the well raised.
Of course what is hidden from the operator that all of the sensors and instruments that he uses on a day to day basis and sees the value in his terms are
combined in different ways to provide information for others in the organisation. The power meter on the intake of the ASP blowers coupled with the air
flow monitors gives an energy engineer in the control centre a chance to see how often the aeration grid as well as providing the operator on the works with
valuable short term operational data it also gives the performance and efficiency managers a chance to see how the asset base as a whole is performing and the
asset engineers to see how the asset base that they have promoted and designed works in anger giving them a chance to see what changes need to be made
in order to improve the future assets that are constructed.
Operational data is very much short term but it has affects on the way that everything operates from the asset data to the affect that the operational data
has on the customer to the failing of the system resulting in an illegal discharge or the prevention of one to the operation of water treatment works and the
operation of the potable network to ensure that the pressure in the distribution network is enough to supply customers with water but enough to keep the
leakage to an absolute minimum.
Customer data is the great untapped area of the water industry. In the past it has been a case of just a customer address to send a bill to for an unmetered
property to an address to instal; and a read a meter at once every six months. The metered consumption of course having the value throughout the network in
design calcualtions, but its an average that is really at best an average of an average of an average.......The advent of smart metering steps in and suddenly the
value of the data that is collected is increased. The total daily volume of a customer is know, the counsumption of a DMA is known not only on a daily basis but
at what time and in what conditions so that the value is that the system can learn when is water is needed and ensure that just enough water is needed to be
supplied to that water DMA at that particular time. This has value in knowing exactly what is needed and when. With a little bit of intelligent engineering it is
possible to say exactly when water is needed as an input to the system and when it is going to be discharged from that particular customer. This also has value
for the wastewater collection network. This is the company side of the value of customer data and is basically for a seamless service to the customer.
For the customer side of customer data there are possbilities of using Smart Meters to track things such as customer side leakage that is not only a bain to the
water company but a bain to the water company as well. With the advent of Smart Meter it is possible to night line every property, every night and put an alert
based system so that customer side leakage can be reduced to an absolute minimum so that it is virtually eliminated and undue bills are eliminated.
There is of course new ways of customer data where the
water industry and the customer can work together and
these are being investigated in the water companies at the
current time. The first is the use of social media for both the
water company to communicate with the customer and the
customer to communicate to the water company. It is of
course a very public way for problems to be aired in a very
public arena but makes that the public are listened to, are
aware of the situations that are important to the customer
and that all of the customers concerns are dealt with. The
next of the potential use of data is the use of the Internet
of Things to communicate with the customer and for the
customer to communicate with the water company.
Data is collected in massive amounts by the Water Indus-
try and is set to be collected in even greater amounts going
forward. To add to the Data Rich, Information Poor scenario
that the global water industry suffers from we are set for a
future where we are the Data Rich equivalent of Fort Knox
coming in through the door everyday. A “Perfect Storm” of
data that a number of different industry experts have predicted. What we need to do to address this is currently un-defined everyone is looking towards the
“Great White “ hope that “Big Data” will deal with the industry woes of the burgeoning wave of data that is going to hit the water industry. What the industry
should of course do is understand the data that it already has and what it wants to collect. This will drive the instruments and the assets that it needs to invest
in and as a result put a data strategy to the current water industry. To understand what the industry really needs to collect and thus drives the instruments and
the sensors that we need to install in the assets that we already have.
Page 11
Oliver Grievson is the group manager of the Water Industry Process Automation and Control LinkedIn discussion group . He has many
years experience firstly in the laboratory and for the past 12 years in the operational and process management of both potable and
wastewater treatment works. He developed a passion for the control of water and wastewater treatment works whilst working for
Yorkshire Water in the United Kingdom and decided to share this passion by setting up the WIPAC LinkedIn discussion group.
He is a Fellow of CIWEM & the IES as well as being a Chartered Environmentalist, Scientist and Water & Environmental Manager. He
is a member of the MCERTS Steering Group for the monitoring of flow, a member of the ICA Special Interest Group on ICA as well
as sitting on the Wastewater Management Commtitees of the Foundation for Water Research and the Chartered Instiute of Water
& Environmental Management.

Forward Thinking:
Water & the Internet of Things
The Water Industry was challenged in 2014 by members of the comuputer industry to think what it wanted from the Internet of Things. In this article by Laurie Reynolds of
Aquamatix which was first printed in Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine the industry has a potential answer.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to revolutionise the water industry, as more and more of its technology is connected to the web. The
possibilities of a connected world are almost limitless. There are already more machines connected to the internet than people, and many more connected
products will enter our lives over the next few years as embedded micro-electronics proliferate in everyday things. Personal fitness monitors, white goods, cars,
turbo generators and water quality sensors, to pick a few examples.
This phenomenon is called the Internet of Things (IoT) and the intelligent systems which will be created will change our lives in profound ways. This article sets
out to explain what the IoT is, and illustrate some applications in the water industry.
The term ‘Internet of Things’ is not new; it is attributed to Kevin Ashton of Google in 1999, but has captured people’s imagination and supported lots of new
conferences in 2014. It even replaced Big Data at the peak of ‘inflated expectations’ in Gartner’s 2014 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle.
Other terms which are used synonymously with IoT are machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, Web of Things, Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet (of
Things), smart systems, pervasive computing and intelligent systems. All terms which reflect the idea that intelligent software embedded in Things are able to
communicate their state, condition and actions to other machines and humans, and will create value which has not been possible or economic hitherto.
There are many projections for the potential value generated by IoT. One of the more extreme, from US IT company Cisco, predicts a value of US$14.4 trillion
for companies and industries globally over the next decade. This figure represents the potential economic and social benefit arising from new connected
applications and new service-orientated business models.
IoT spans many vertical markets. For the purposes of this article, it is useful to think about four main sectors: consumer goods, industrial equipment and
processes, vehicle telematics and smart infrastructure. Our future cities will be highly dependent on integrated systems delivering smart street-lighting,
electricity grids, smart gas, water and transportation networks. Inevitably, there will be completely new applications, businesses and industry sectors created
which haven’t even been included in the number above, and some of that new value will bring benefits to the water sector.
IoT is driven by a convergence of five technologies which, when combined and integrated, create new applications which were not previously practical or
cost-effective. It can be thought of as a natural extension of SCADA, telemetry, industrial automation and enterprise decision support all rolled into one, but it
offers so much more than SCADA and there are important differences and advantages which are discussed below.
The key technologies are:
• Low-cost sensors, actuators and embedded edge devices
• Microelectronic sensors have proliferated in all measurement and sensing fields. Mass-market applications such as smartphones and machine condition
monitoring require sophisticated, accurate multi-sensor systems and associated signal processing.
• Costs have been driven down dramatically. Applications, such as personal health monitors, solid waste bins and most water sensors have no electrical
power available - they have to operate for long periods of time on a small battery.
• Devices in the field are becoming smarter, and will be based on off-the-shelf, low-cost hardware. They contain intelligence that is specific to the function
that the Thing has to provide.
For example, a pump station controller will be equipped with diagnostics for monitoring the condition of the pumps, their hydraulic performance and energy
efficiency, and will be able to call for a maintenance intervention when required (Aquamatix).
A pressure sensor with embedded software which can detect and analyse transients and flow data; clever signal processing algorithms which extract the
information value from the sensor and send critical events to a dynamic hydraulic model or decision-support system (Infrasense Labs).
A wireless ultrasonic level transmitter with a ten-year battery, which will transmit sludge tank levels when there is a significant change in contents and report
solids inventory to a ‘travelling salesman’ optimal route planner (Enevo). These are a few examples of devices available today, and the rate of innovation will
accelerate.
Open, wireless communication networks
A multi-sensor application consisting of many sensors of a similar type, such as pressure or water quality, distributed across a wide geographic area - or a set
of multi-parameter sensors in a personal health monitor or monitoring a water body - need to be interconnected with other machines which use the data.
Communications networks, in most cases, will be wireless.
Data transfer protocols such as Bluetooth (low-power, short-range) WiFi & Zigbee (medium –range) and GSM (medium-power, wide-area coverage) are
becoming pervasive and low-cost. Security is a concern but is designed into the protocols and with multi-layer authentication at the edge device.
Open standards are important to ensure multi-vendor interoperability – a term describing products from different manufacturers working together. Point-based
protocols such as DNP3, which were popular in 1990s for telemetry, are being replaced by message-based protocols that transfer whole blocks of pre-processed
data from the intelligent edge device.
Page 12

Most open protocols will be based on IP (internet protocol), however some local networks, especially if ultra low power is a requirement, as it is in water, will
not use IP because it is not energy-efficient. Various gateways will be necessary to channel data from legacy and IoT devices via a public or private internet to
data processing facilities.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing has drastically reduced the cost of data processing and storage due to the low cost of ownership and the lack of a need for server infrastruc-
ture or the additional cost of a data centre. A new term ‘FOG computing’ (not fats oils & greases) describes a more local distributed cloud resource which brings
the processing to the data rather than pushing the data to the cloud.
As the edge devices become smarter, the data that needs to be transmitted as messages will be less frequent and higher value. The current perception of
“drowning in data” will change to become the right data in the right context at the right time – a pipedream perhaps but the potential is certainly there.
Big data analytics
Big data analytics and machine learning, a vast array of techniques for extracting meaning and understanding from data, data-mining, self-learning
algorithms and model-based reasoning, are a few of the mechanisms used for building automated decision support systems (DSS). When coupled with ad-
vanced data visualisation, actionable insight can be gained from real-time data coupled with new and legacy mathematical models. Integration with GIS and
asset management and other enterprise business applications, such as energy optimisation, will also be critical business capabilities.
Mobile computing
Smartphones and tablets deliver actionable insight to human users on the operational front-line. Mobile browsers and apps also provide a rich platform for user
interaction and data collection, and become data processing Things in their own right.
So how will all this new technology impact on water management? Agriculture accounts for around 70% of the world’s fresh water resources; there are already
many smart systems in service for precision irrigation and crop yield management, which significantly reduce water demand. Aquamatix, a specialist technolo-
gy company which is developing IoT for the water industry, is designing a system for a 220 year old canal which will take a weather feed from a crowd-sourced
web service and use the data to predict rainfall; this will allow optimisation of storage and rainfall capture, reducing the need for back-pumping and the risk of
serious flooding.
Smart technology will allow the parts of the water cycle to be run in a more integrated way enabling better decisions to be made based on real-time data.
Questions such as when should water be drawn from a groundwater source or a river based on aquifer levels, demand and weather patterns?
When is the best time to discharge treated effluent to a river based on its flow rates and quality? What is the sludge solids inventory in holding tanks and what
the optimal collection route? What is the effect of pump operation in pressurised water networks?
What is the optimum storage level in a service reservoir? Can a pump station and its service reservoir be used for load balancing and energy storage in
conjunction with a smart grid? Yes it can! It will also provide a great example of the integration of electricity and water networks which will deliver some
exciting prospects for cost and resource saving. A system that can predict local floods could help flood-prone communities prepare for and maybe even prevent
catastrophic events, and many more.
One of the most exciting applications driven by IoT will be in field service, which will evolve from reactive to preventative maintenance, based on actual
condition of the plant and equipment. A supplier of specialist packaged treatment plant will be able to gain a much better understanding of utilisation of their
equipment and offer a lifetime optimisation service, matching capacity to load thereby increasing reliability and availability. The supplier will gain a much better
understanding of how the plant is operating, has an on-going customer relationship and a new service revenue stream.
A particularly interesting aspect of IoT is a concept which Aquamatix refers to as ‘Connected Know-how’, which involves replacing the declining expertise availa-
ble at treatment plants and networks with smart devices. The domain expert’s experience is used to classify and codify a set of operating models for a particular
type of asset or process, for example, disinfection.
The knowledge is captured and structured using information modelling techniques to create datamodels, which are implemented in the smart edge device.
When the process is operating under normal conditions, no intervention is necessary, the intelligent system is in control. However, as soon as the process
deviates outside its defined envelope, the expert can be quickly connected to the process, wherever he or she happens to be in the world, to determine
corrective action and intervention.
The IoT will deliver practical, real-time asset management, providing the ability to optimise use of abstraction licences, boreholes, pumps, reservoirs, pipe
networks, sewers, treatment plant and discharge licences to ensure lowest cost and most effective service to customers. It will allow systems and plant to be
run closer to their limits of capacity, condition and energy efficiency. Far too often, the smart water debate focusses on the customer meter, but in a world
of IoT, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The real value will come from truly sweating the connected assets within a measured and dynamically managed risk
profile.
Laurie is a Chartered Engineer with 35+ years senior level experience in control systems and instrumentation in the water industry. He is
a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering.He founded
Aquamatix Ltd in 2011 to bring together the best of M2M and Internet of Things technology to create WaterWorX - powered by ThingWorX,
the leading IOT development platform.
Page 13

Urban water demand (UWD) forecasting is an important task that can be utilized by water resources managers to help mitigate consequences stemming from
fluctuations in demand and properly respond to water system dynamics at varying scales and lead times, ensuring appropriate operational, tactical, and stra-
tegic management of the water system. UWD forecasting can be applied to solve a number of issues faced by water supply system management such as: 1)
understanding the dynamics and underlying factors that affect water use; 2) managing and optimizing the operation of pumps, wells, reservoirs, and mains,
among other things; 3) developing effective water demand management programs; 4) setting meaningful water rate schedules; and 5) providing information
regarding when peak water demand is likely to occur (Adamowski, et al., 2012).
Recently, House-Peters & Chang (2011) explored the UWD modeling literature from the past three decades and identified four themes that are important. In
this regard, we discuss two of these topics that are relevant to this article: (1) interactions within and across multiple temporal scales, and (2) acknowledgement
and quantification of uncertainty. To understand the broad context of UWD forecasting applications at different scales, Donkor, et. al (2014) summarized their
findings related to the planning level that the forecasts can support as the following three categories: operational, tactical, and strategic (presented in Table 1).
Most recently, it was identified through a survey of water utilities under the Water Research Foundation’s co-funded project on short-term UWD forecasting
(Fullerton, Forthcoming) that water utilities’ most crucial need for short-term forecasting is tied to revenue and expenditure projections. Generally, the most
prevalent billing cycles occur at monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly periods.
Undoubtedly, we are operating water systems in the age of Big Data, where sensing technology is prevalent and the ability to store and process large amounts
of data are advancing at expedited rates (Courtney, 2014). Furthermore, with advances in the domain of machine learning, data-based forecasting is often
used in water resources applications to solve challenging problems with non-trivial mathematical expressions (Maier, et al., 2010). To merge the ongoing
advancements in the UWD modeling domain with the forecast requirements of the water utility and the water industry trend of Big Data analytics, it is clear
that we require a refined forecasting procedure that is not only accurate and reliable but suitable for Big Data applications. It is essential that this forecasting
procedure captures the changing dynamics of the water supply system at multiple scales, identifies sources of uncertainty in derived forecasts, and is amenable
to Big Data scenarios (i.e., a method that requires little user intervention and rapid computing potential).
In this article we provide a tool named Multiscale-Bootstrap-Extreme Learning Machine (MBELM) that can be used to solve all of the above-mentioned
issues plaguing water resources managers and the water supply systems they manage. MBELM incorporates UWD interactions across multiple temporal scales,
quantifies uncertainty in model forecasts, and is perfectly suited to Big Data scenarios. To show the benefits in accuracy and reliability of the MBELM, we
apply this model to a real-world dataset from the water supply system in London, Ontario, Canada. In this brief case study, we focus on one-month-ahead UWD
forecasts, which can be used as accurate and reliable tools for monthly revenue projections because they align with the water utility’s billing periods (City of
London, 2013).
MBELM Background
The MBELM model is a refinement of the model Wavelet-Bootstrap-Artificial Neural Network (WBANN), introduced to the UWD forecasting literature by
Tiwari & Adamowski (2013). The authors utilize the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) (Mallat, 1989; Daubechies, 1990), which builds on the well-known
Fourier transform, to decompose the original water demand record (time series) into multiple components that each characterize different temporal scales.
The DWT captures high-frequency time series components and isolates these components into what are called “detail series” representing the fast-changing
characteristics of the original record. Successive “details” may be extracted from the original record. The remaining signal content is called the “approxima
tion” series and generally contains trends and slower-moving time series components. If one were to extract all possible details from the original record, the
approximation series would represent the mean of the original UWD time series.
After performing DWT analysis on the original UWD time series, the authors then use a nonlinear machine learning technique, Artificial Neural Networks, or
simply Neural Networks (ANN) (Zurada, 1992), to calculate forecasts for each isolated signal (the detail[s] and the approximation series). Finally, the authors
use the statistical bootstrap technique (Efron & Tibshirani, 1993) to derive confidence intervals addressing uncertainty in the final forecast.
When partitioning the data we usually consider three separate sets: calibration, validation, and testing.
Our modification to the WBANN method replaces the ANN model with a new machine learning technique called Extreme Learning Machines (ELM) (Huang,
et al., 2006). The benefit of ELM when compared to ANN is that ELM can be built automatically without user intervention; the ANN requires significant user
intervention with different user settings creating large variations in forecast performance. Another attractive feature of the ELM is the rapid computation time,
which is on the order of 50 times faster than to the ANN in our simulations. Thus, the ELM is practical for Big Data applications.
Article:
Using Big Data To Predict
Urban Water Demand
Page 14

Materials And Methods
First, we will describe the procedure for developing the MBELM, and afterwards we will briefly describe the dataset used in this article. We end this section
explaining the data partitioning used to generate the forecasts and how the forecasts are evaluated. We defer theoretical development for the reader to explore
in the referenced publications.
A simple flow chart is provided in Figure 1 to illustrate the MBELM development procedure.
City Of London, Ontario UWD Time Series
In this article we choose a UWD time series from Hipel & McLeod (1994) to present the efficacy of the MBELM. The dataset represents average monthly water
demand measured in megalitres per day (ML/D) between January 1967 and December 1988 for the municipality of London, Ontario. This dataset can be used to
provide one-month-ahead revenue projections for the water utility.
Generally, the accuracy of the forecast will depend upon the availability of historical records and the complexity of the UWD time series under study.
Data Partitioning
Data partitioning is a method used to build and improve the overall accuracy of the developed forecast model so that it can be used with high accuracy and
reliability on new data as it becomes available. When partitioning the data we usually consider three separate sets: calibration, validation, and testing. Validation
and testing data are extracted from the original record and reserved to judge the suitability of the model parameters. For the dataset in this article, observations
from January 1967 to December 1986 are used to calibrate model parameters; data from January 1987 to December 1987 are used to select the best model
parameters (validation); and the best model parameters are tested independently for model evaluation throughout the timeframe January 1988 to December
1988.
Model Evaluation
Using the Coefficient of Determination (COD) and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE), one can evaluate the performance of the MBELM. The COD is a dimensionless
quantity (square of Pearson’s correlation coefficient) that describes the amount of variance of the original time series explained by the MBELM prediction, while
the MAE evaluates the mean error independent of sign, measured in ML/D. Generally, the accuracy of the forecast will depend upon the availability of historical
records and the complexity of the UWD time series under study.
Results and Discussion
The results for step 2 of the MBELM development procedure (Figure 1) are presented in Figure 2, while steps 3 to 5 are shown in Figure 3. Table 2 provides
Pearson’s correlation coefficient (CC) matrix examining significant correlation between each wavelet decomposed sub-series (WDSS) and the original time series
at the 0.05 significance level.
It is clear from Figure 2 that there are cyclical components embedded within the original time series. This highlights the usefulness of the DWT at extracting these
important time series characteristics and exposing their periodic nature through time, which is not fully apparent in the original UWD record. Perhaps the most
important characteristic revealed through the DWT decompositions for this time series is the extremely periodic nature of the approximation sub-series, which
coincides with a 12-month periodicity superimposed on an upward trend. The two details series exhibit random, and at times sharp, changes from their regular
periodic patterns.
Examining the CC matrix (Table 2), one can see that there is significant correlation between the original time series and each WDSS. Likewise, there are also
cases of significant CC between WDSS members. This nuance supports the exploration of cross-scale dependencies in the urban water supply system to better
understand how these scales interact and their influence on UWD variation through time (which is implicitly integrated into the MBELM approach presented in
this article) supporting the findings of House-Peters & Chang (2011). Searching for dependencies between temporal scales is a worthwhile endeavor for a water
manager because it can reveal system characteristics that may be exploitable for optimal pump scheduling, multi-objective reservoir operation, management and
maintenance strategies, setting effective water-use rates, or determining when peak UWD events are likely to occur (among many other applications).
Page 15

John Quilty is an engineer with the City of Ottawa’s automated metering infrastructure project group and a researcher at McGill
University, where he is pursuing his Ph.D. in bioresource engineering. John has contributed to water resources forecasting projects in
Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, India, and Poland.
This article was orignially printed in Water Online and is kindly reprinted with permission
By deriving forecasts for each WDSS member using the ELM framework and aggregating their individual predictions, one is able to produce the “Forecast”
presented in Figure 3: (a) for the complete time series record and (b) for the independent test-set evaluation. The uncertainty assessment through bootstrapping
is then applied at the 95 percent confidence level and also presented in both (a) and (b) representing the complete MBELM framework.
For the independent test set, the COD for the MBELM is 0.9679, meaning that the MBELM forecasts explain more than 96 percent of the variance in one-
month-ahead observed UWD. The MAE for the same period is 3.8821 ML/D. Both scores indicate the highly accurate nature of the MBELM forecasts. The
confidence intervals also embody all observations within the independent test set, highlighting the reliability of using the MBELM for one-month-ahead revenue
projections.
Conclusion
This article has introduced a new multiscale UWD forecasting tool with uncertainty assessment, namely the MBELM, and tested its abilities on monthly UWD
time series for one-month-ahead revenue forecasting in London, Ontario. The case study revealed the MBELM can be applied to generate accurate and reliable
one-month UWD forecasts that can be used by water utilities for revenue projections. It is important to note that the MBELM method presented in this article is
amendable to different forecasting periods, such as hourly, weekly, quarterly, etc., extending its applicability to a host of other important water utility functions
(some of which are mentioned in the Introduction and again in the Results and Discussion). Furthermore, the MBELM is not only accurate and reliable (through
uncertainty assessment) but also adapts to fluctuations in temporal scales embedded within the original UWD time series. Building on this last point, climate
variables and economic indicators can be incorporated in the MBELM framework to study how UWD interacts with climate variability and economic momentum
at different scales. This exciting factor allows water managers to incorporate climate and economic status into their water management decisions. The most
enticing feature of the MBELM is its suitability to Big Data applications. Future Big Data research in the UWD forecasting domain should investigate the
usefulness of the MBELM for operational forecasting of UWD time series extracted from Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems for automation and
optimization of water utility system components.
Page 16

Workshop Report:
Smart Wastewater Networks
18th February 2015
The Subject of the smart wastewater network is very popular in the UK Water industry at the moment and it showed in this CIWEM led workshop on the
“Smart Wastewater Network. Of all of the Water & Sewerage Companies in the UK the vast majority came to hear what the speakers at this day-long workshop
and debate had to say.
The first sesson of the workshop was about the regulation of
the Smart Wastewater Industry. It is important because regu-
lation is often the driver in the Water Industry (and assured-
ly other industries as well) that makes it financially viable for
things to happen. The session started of with Oliver Grievson as
co-host for the day talking about the need for the Smart Waste-
water Network. The Keynote presentation for the day focused
on the Water Company drivers for the Smart Wastewater Net-
work and how the need to work within the principles of TO-
TEX would allow some of these innovations to be realised. The
Water Companies in the UK have a set of difficuly challenges
to deliver within the next Asset Management Period and it is
through collaboration on concepts such as Smart Wastewater
Networks that we can address these challenges.
The Water Company drivers outside of the regulatory
environment are drawn by their business goals and looking after the customer by preventing flooding and of course reducing the costs to the business. One
of the routes to this is of course innovation and the Keynote presentation reported on some of the successes that have happended in the past and some of
the areas for development in the future. Areas such as Pollutiom prevention,
Ralt Time Control, Rainfall prediction and flow management. These are all lofty
concepts that with the right technology can be delivered and in some cases
have been delivered in other countries.
The rest of the presentation was dedicated to explaining where Anglian
Water was at the present and included technological developments such as
Sewerbatt, a tool for the inspection of the sewer network and also the work
that had been done in looking at the sewer as a pre-treatment stage using
bio-augementation. other projects were discussed including Sewernet which
detects problems within the sewer; Pollution prevention using detection,
alarm & mitigation techniques; intelligen pump drives and pump condition
monitoring to name a few.
If the key note presentation described where the Water Companies are at the
current time the next presentation described the particular problem in the UK
of CSO’s and the need to monitor them. The presentation was by Phillip Hulme who is the UK Environment Agency expert on CSOs. The Water Industry re-
ceived a ministerial direction that the various combined storm overflows in the UK needed monitoring. From this a risk based- strategy was developed by the
Environmental Regulator taking a prudent approach to the need to monitor espcially considering that the triple pressures of climate change, urban creep and
growth predicts a median increase in 1:10 year sewer flood volumes of 51% by about 2040 compared with current predicted flooding putting huge pressures
on the Wastewater Network.
Phillip went on to describe the risk approach that willl be taken
with the expectation that where necessary complex event duration
monitoring wil be undertaken on the most sensitive of overflows that
have an effect on a combination high amenity anod/or high risk of spill
areas ranging down to basic monitoring in areas which hardly ever
spill or have a low amenity value. What was plain is that a reasonable
practical approach has been taken by the UK Environment Agency.
The last speaker of the first session was Professor David Butler of the
University of Exeter who was speaking on behalf of one of his PhD
students. The presentation proposed a different way of regulating the
discharges to the environment taking a much more performance based
methodology. It was certainly a very interesting and radical approach
that felt like a development of the OPRA-PBC concept but took a much
more practical approach that could actually be developed and could
actually be used. .
Page 17

The concept was using stakeholder engagement to develop a
proposal in terms of the performance indicators that were to form the
basis of the permit, and form this conduct correlation analysis, agree
the operational paramaters that will form the basis of the permit and
then develop the mathematical operational optmal solution and then
use this to define both the control system and the operational limits
based upon the operational parameters rather than just an end of the
pipe permitting solution.
Although the approach still needs to be trialled it showed that the
operational based permitting system actually produced a tighter
performance when compared to end of pipe permitted solutions with
a better overal value to both the Water Company and to the riverine
environment as the optimal operational solution was being proposed
by the mathematical analysis.
The second session was charied by Neil Scarlett of the CIWEM Urban Dranage Group and presentations by Mouchel on their current UKWIR project showed
where the UK industry is in comparison to the rest of the world. The answer was that systems do exist in the UK but we just not that aware of it but the
system that is needed very much depends upon what the ultimate outcome actually is. The most advanced Smart Wastewater Network in the world is actually
in Copenhagen and includes for a complete flood forecsting model which allows for active control of the system and optimises as it goes along. However this
not appropriate for alll systems
The question that came out from this presentation from Mouchel is “how do we get to the ultimate concept of a wastewater network such as that in
Copenhagen where there is active system control. The parting shot of the presentation was that with the current pressures on the Global Water Industry this is
an area that we cannot afford not to develop.
The next presentation was by Steve Woods of Detectronic and very much took the practical approroach of not necessarily the control system but the monitoring
system and the collection of data from the wastewater network and how the data can be used to provide the intelligence to discover what is going on in the
network. It was very much an instrumentation based approach with the analysis of the data providing the insight as to what is actually going on in the form of
a “Full Circle network monitoring & analysis service”
Of course all of this relies on the correct instruments being
installed in the correct way and also being maintained. If this
happens then the data can be relied upon. On top of this the
following is needed
• SMART Monitors - know when to send-in data for scrutiny
• Well-developed Alarm and Event data-delivery strategy
• 100% Confidence in data quality and accuracy
•Intelligent Alarm screening processes to detect wet weather
blockages and deliver near real-time intervention reports
• Analysis of multiple data-sets for each site to detect changes
and deliver predictive interventions (avoiding false-alarms)
With the correct operation of the network and the use of the
data the results of the correct instrumentation giving the right
data allowed a more efficient operation of the wastewater
network.
Page 18

The event was kindly sponsored by Mouchel
& Detectronic for further details of these
companies please click the following links
Mouchel - Click here
Detectronic - Click here
and supported by the SBWWI
This concept was mirrored by the next speaker, James Harrison, who described the approach that Yorkshire Water had taken in using predictive analysis to
better manage the wastewater network using a much more practical approach. What Yorkshire Water discovered is a concept that is not unfamiliar to regular
readers of WIPAC, insofar as the company was actually collecting all of the data that it needed to better manage its assets. By changing the way that the data
analysed and brought together. The teams within the company analysed the data and the weather patterns and discovered the “blockage timeline”
What they discovered in Yorkshire was that a period of dry weather
caused a build up of material within the sewer and depending upon
the rainfall intensity either caused a “first flush” within the sewer
when the intensity was high enough or was insufficient to flush the
sewer and caused it to block causing a pollution incident.
The company already had a team that was examining weather
patterns and all it took was to rearrange the way that the particular
team operated and it allowed
• the company to improve their knowledge of the root causes
of pollution and discuss them in an informed way.
• A 21% reduction in the number of pollution incidents
allowing the company to meet its regulatory targets.
• Improve the business planning as part of the Price Review
Process
The final session of the day demonstrated the actual Smart Wastewater Networks that are present around the world. The first presenter of the final session
was Jody Cockcroft of MWH who discussed the Eastney Island Project that was delivered for Southern Water. The project uses models based upon Innovyze’s
ICM Live system to produce predictive based models to have a simple automated tool that provides them with enough information to allow them to make
an informed decision as to what pumps to start up and shut down giving the operators advanced warning of pump operation in the network system. The
system also give the operators additional benefits in terms
of alerts when scheduled operations aren’t carried out so
for example when the system predicts that a pump should
be switched on and isn’t but also alerts when there is poor
data because of a broken instrument and this has caused a
divergence from the model.
Although this Smart Wastewater Network isn’t at a
complexity level where there is automated control with-
in the wastewater network it is at a level where it is giv-
ing the operators enough infromation to make an informed
decision. This may well be sufficient for some operators be-
cause of the complexity of the network system, such as
that at Eastney or where operational levels permit a system
where a fully automated control simply isn’t necessary or
financially viable.
The final presentation was by Mark Davis of Flowline who discussed the Real Time measurement of the wastewater network with specific case studies from
Belgium and the North Tyrol region of Italy. These are systems that have been in place for over 10 years and demonstrate that both the measurement
technology is available to put a Smart Wastewater Networks in place and to control it. On top of this it is also possible, such as in the case study of the Flowbru
system in Belgium to have all of the assets available for public consumption on the Internet.
The development of Smart Wastewater Networks within the UK is very popular within the UK Water Industry at the moment because of all of the regulatory
and operational pressures that the industry is currently under. Like the various concepts that are popular at the moment such as “Big Data”, Small Information,
and the Internet of Things the industry needs to decide what it wants from of all of these concepts. Some of these concepts are simple to implement as demon-
strated by James Harrison and what Yorkshire Water has already acheived and some solutions are complex and difficult systems that require the construction of
complex models and complex control systems. In reality the solution for a particular catchment or a particular place will lie somewhere between the most basic
to the most advanced network control system depending upon a number of different factors including the regulatory, operational, environmental, & customer
need and as the need arises systems will need to put in place. The alternative going forward is that the situation as predicted at the start of the day by Phillip
Hulme will only get worse as infrastructure ages and the pressures of climated change, urban creep and growth start to bite.
Page 19

Catchment Monitoring
Where: Rothamsted Research, Devon
When: 18th
March 2015
Description
The water framework directive (WFD) came into force in 2000. Since then,
key milestones have been reached and in 2015 the first management
cycle ends. This workshop will be exploring how the WFD has impacted on
catchment monitoring, what processes have been adopted and what type
of sensor technology has been developed and implemented to meet these
requirements. The workshop will also cover research in the area of catch-
ment monitoring and future requirements for sensor and sensor networks in
these environments.
The Workshop will take place at the Rothamsted Research, Grassland
and Arable Systems site, at North Wyke, Devon, which forms part of the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The workshop will
cover the programmes that Rothamsted have recently covered in the area of
catchment monitoring, and attendees to the workshop can take advantage
of a field tour in the afternoon to see the Rothamsted Farm Platform Project.
This workshop will be hosted by Justing Dunning of Chelsea Technologies
Group & Vice Chairman of SWIG
What’s the use of data & how secure is it
Where: Manufcaturing Technoogy Centre, Coventy
When: 29th
April 2015
Description
When it comes to data quite simply there is a huge amount of it and
the Water Industry is set to collect more. With the advent of the ever
increasing amount of data the Water Industry is set to collect there is the
problem of how all of it is going to processed and understood. ‘Big Data’ is
a term that has risen into popularity as is the term ‘Small Information,’ as
has the ‘ Internet of Things. The question to ask is what does this look like
practically? and what are the risks associated with it
In a departure from the usual format the aim of this ‘Big Data & Data
Security Workshop’ is to ask two questions – What’s the Use of Data…..and
how secure is it?
The workshop will be in the form of an open discussions will be lead by a
number of guest speakers from the Water Companies, Supply Chain and
Industry experts in order to look at where data can be used within the Water
Industry and what the risk are as whole.
This workshop will be led by Oliver Grievson, Director of the Sensors for
Water Interest Group and John Marsh of Siemens who are kindly hosting
the workshop
SWIG Events
in 2015
Conferences, Events,
Seminars & Studies
Conferences, Seminars & Events
Events Calendar in 2015
February
18th
February - CIWEM Workshop - The Value of Data in the Wastewater
Network - London - UK
23rd
-25th
February - WEX Global Conference & Awards
Istanbul, Turkey
26th
February - Launch of the UK Water Partnership
London, UK
March
18th
March - SWIG Workshop - Catchment Monitoring
Rothamsted, UK
25th
March - Pinsent Masons WET Wednesday
London, UK
April
29th
April - SWIG Workshop - Data & Data Security
Coventry, UK
29th
- 30th
April - SWAN Forum Annual Conference
London, UK
May
19th
May, 3rd National Wastewater Infrastructure & Networks Conference
Birmingham, UK
June
7th
- 11th
June - ACE 2015
Anaheim, California, USA
July
1st
- 2nd
July, NEL International Flow Conference
Coventry, UK
September
23rd
- 24th
September, Sensing in Water 2015
Nottingham, UK
26th
- 30th
September, WEFTEC
Chicago, USA
October
12th
- 13th
October, 9th European Wastewater Management Conference
Manchester, UK

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