1. INTELLIGENT WATER NETWORKS
Priscilla Chung, Andrew Chapman
South East Water, Melbourne, VIC
ABSTRACT
This paper documents South East Water’s findings
from a review on how improving water network
intelligence can improve efficiency, enhance
customer value and help water organisation meet
the challenges and complexities of a future
integrated urban water environment. This paper
will cover:
• How latest technologies and systems can
enhance network intelligence;
• How to keep up with the vast amount of quickly
evolving technologies and practices;
• What the water industry can learn from other
industries implementing intelligent networks;
• What do our customers and community really
want from a more intelligent organisation; and
• What are the implementation challenges to be
addressed if the visions are to be realised.
INTRODUCTION
South East Water conducted an Intelligent Network
Review Project throughout 2010 to explore new
and emerging technologies and systems to assist
South East Water in achieving improved business
efficiency and enhanced customer value. The
review focused on the following outcomes:
• Enhance customer value in service and
response;
• Improve efficiency in undertaking core
business functions;
• Improve knowledge and management of risks
and data;
• Provide opportunities for expansion in services;
• Enable integration of alternative water
systems; and
• Provide industry leadership in technology.
This paper will discuss the approach and results of
the review, providing examples of current
intelligent networks applications within South East
Water.
South East Water is a provider of water, sewerage,
trade waste and water efficiency services for over
1.3 million people that are residents and
businesses in an area ranging from the South East
of Melbourne to South Gippsland. South East
Water is one of Melbourne’s three metropolitan
water retailers owned by the Victorian Government.
CONTEXT
The increasing challenges and complexity of
the future integrated urban water environment
requires a paradigm shift in how water utilities
deliver services
The future urban water network faces many
challenges associated with climate change,
population growth, aging infrastructure, and
increasing customer expectations on service
options (AWA 2010). Water utilitis are accoutable
in maximising customer value while minimising
customer costs. The conventional approach of
centralised water services, that focuses heavily on
capital investment to expand infrastructure
capacity is no longer sufficient. Water utilities need
to build intelligence into water systems to improve
the effectivenes, efficiency and value of services to
customers. The water industry is undergoing
changes to plan for future water sensitive cities that
are liveable, resilient, and sustainable (AWA 2010).
The future water sensitive urban environment will
move towards integrating management of mulitple
water sources, decentralisation of services,
providing third party access, and enhancing
environmental sustainability (AWA 2010).
The future of the urban water environment is
not constrained by technology, it is
constrained by imagination
The paradigm shift into a future water sensitive
urban environment can be enabled by selective
adaptation of cost effective technology and system
advancements with a planned and coordinated
approach. Technology is accelerating at an
exponential rate, providing the water industry with a
myriad of new opportunities to manage water
networks more intelligently. Information technology,
data handling capacity, the range of
communication options, monitoring technology and
smaller decentralised treatment technology are
improving and will continue to do so. The challenge
water utilities face is to understand the emerging
technological trends, and to leverage off these to
provide economically viable, fit-for-purpose
solutions.
APPROACH
South East Water’s project team derived and
adopted a multi-criteria innovation assessment

2. framework (Figure 1) to prioritise and select
emerging technologies for feasibility and piloting.
The framework offers the flexibility to handle vast
amounts of conceptual information sourced from a
wide spectrum of stakeholders in an effective and
efficient manner. This framework provides an
alternative to the traditional triple bottom line
approach and is found to be useful for assessing
innovation opportunities.
The three distinctive features in the innovation
assessment framework include:
• A customer driven approach to establish needs
and opportunities of intelligent water networks
through community and stakeholder
engagement. In 2010, South East Water was
awarded the IAP2 Australasian Award for the
“Best Public Participation Policy Framework”
for the manner in which engagement has been
embraced across the business;
• External specialists engagement from other
industries to provide a broader perspective on
the potential of technology to meet those
challenges; and
• Opportunities filtering to assess innovation
ideas against customer perceived challenges
and corporate strategic directions.
What customers and communities want from
more intelligent networks
The community and stakeholder engagement
provided valuable insight into the community’s
impression of South East Water’s role in the
provision of water services. In total, nearly 500
ideas and opportunities were generated. These
ideas were explored to indentify 6 key challenges
(Table 1) in meeting the needs of community and
stakeholders (South East Water, 2010). These
became the basis for discussion with the external
specialists and a key part of the opportunity
prioritisation process.
Table 1: Community and Stakeholder Needs
Community
and
Stakeholder
Needs
Examples
Customer
Choice
• Responsive to individual
customer requirements
External
Communication
• Customer intimacy and
awareness
• Service level reporting
Operational
Improvement
• Optimise system through
increased monitor and
control
• Early detection of system
failure for faster response
System
Improvement
• Decentralised water
solutions
• Extending the life of aging
infrastructure
Knowledge
Management
• Better use of data to model
the system
• Capturing business
information for better
management
Servicing
Synergies
• Shared services
• Coordination of works for
mutual savings
Learning from other industries
Through a one-day workshop, South East Water
and external specialists identified and explored:
• synergies in business challenges and solutions
between the water industry and other related
industries;
• successful cases and lessons learnt from the
smart application of emerging technologies in
the expert’s native industry; and
• solutions for South East Water’s specific key
challenges in meeting customer’s needs.
In total, 59 technology related potential solutions
were generated, representing knowledge and
expertise from the following industries:
• Electricity, transport, telecommunications;
• Acedemic research;
• Water and irrigation;
• Data and systems;
• Organisation capacity; and
• Commercial technology.
Keeping up with the vast amount of quickly
evolving technologies and practices
The project team grouped these ideas into 15
themes, and conducted a SWOT analysis to further
explore their potential. A multi-criteria assessment
framework was developed to rank the innovation
themes to enable South East Water to focus on the
most appropriate technology solutions for adoption
and implementation.
The framework included two matrices: The first
assessed each theme against the community and
stakeholder needs previously listed in Table 1 and
the secound assessed each theme against South
East Water’s strategic priorities (Figure 2 & 3).
OUTCOMES
The Intelligent Networks Review shortlisted six
priority themes for further development to an
implementable program. It also identified the
challenges that need to be addressed if the
Intelligent Networks visions are to be realised.
Shortlisted Intelligent Networks Themes
Figure 4 outlined the six shortlisted themes and
how they interrelate to allow for a coordinated
approach to management and investment. When
combined, the Intelligent Networks themes can

3. contribute to improvement of systems, processes
and people to enable South East Water to:
• Collect the right data at the right time in
appropriate detail;
• Translate the data into knowledge and system
intelligence via data mining and knowledge
discovery;
• Make the knowledge available to the right
people, tailored to individual preferences and
needs;
• Engender a culture of sharing knowledge; and
• Use the knowledge and enhanced system
intelligence to optimise network operations and
control, and make informed decisions.
Theme 1: Real Time Customer Services
Vision: “Developing and maintaining a true
partnership with customers to provide individuals
with choice of services and products in real time.”
South East Water (2010)
Real Time Customer Services refers to the
immediate collection, communication and analysis
of data, and the associated response to a particular
customer or other stakeholder requirement. Real
Time Customer Services can include customised
data reporting, or the proactive detection and
mitigation of system failure before the customer
notices. Customers can determine what
information they would like to know, when and how
to access such information, thus enabling water
utilities to make customer driven decisions, and to
deliver services to individual customer
requirements.
The key opportunity in securing the customer
interface is to establish two-way communication
channels with customers by leveraging the fast
evolving technologies in sensors; domestic smart
meters; communication networks such as the
national broadband; social media and smart
phones applications.
Examples of current Real Time Services include:
Hydroshare - a technology that provides real-time
water consumption and trade waste information via
internet and phone alerts to schools and industrial
customers, allowing for identification of leaks,
water saving measures and reduced waste.
HydroTrack and Water Quality Data Augmentation
- a GPS technology for tracking the location and
time of hydrant off-take by water tankers. This low
cost, easy to implement solution significantly
streamlines the tracking and billing of water
consumption by water tankers. Correlating with
water quality complaints by geographical area,
South East Water can identify tanker extraction
related water quality issues and educate the
corresponding tanker to avoid future incidents.
Theme 2: Asset Condition Monitoring
Vision: “Proactively monitor the asset condition to
enable renewals and repairs prior to failure,
providing a more reliable and cost effective service”
South East Water (2010)
Although currently water industry uses a range of
techniques to conduct asset condition monitoring,
the majority of techniques are intermittent and only
give a snapshot result at a point in time. Many are
difficult to undertake and as a result, tends to be
expensive. Assets are often run to failure. The
focus of Asset Condition Monitoring has been
around detecting and reacting to failure events.
The key opportunity in future Asset Condition
Monitoring is to identify asset failure precursor
indicators such that water utilities can monitor for
proactive asset maintenance, to extend the life of
aging assets in a cost effective manner, and to
reduce customer interruption. A key enabler will be
the tracking and identification of cost effective and
reliable technologies for
• continuous and automated monitoring, with
capacity for remote, online access to relevant
real-time data; and
• automatic analysis of asset condition data and
automatic recommendation on any necessary
remedial actions.
To enhance organisational knowledge and capacity
in asset condition monitoring, South East Water is
currently undertaking a range of research and pilot
programs including:
Remote Sewage Pumping On Duty-point
monitoring system (RESPOND) - The RESPOND
system provides continuous on-line monitoring of
pump station performance allowing early warning
of potential pump and sewer rising main failure.
Permanent Water Supply Leak Detection Trials
South East Water is working in collaboration with
the Department of Sustainability and Environment
(DSE) to evaluate the potential costs and benefits
from the installation of permanent real-time
monitoring devices at sample water supply district
metered areas. The devices monitor pressure, flow,
and acoustics data in real-time to identify leaks.
Theme 3: Data Mining and
Knowledge Discovery
Vision: “Provide organisational capacity to support
the easy access, sharing, utilisation, combination,
and mining of value from data collections.” South
East Water (2010)
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery is the
computer-assisted process of exploring large
quantities of data in order to discover meaningful
information about the data, in the form of patterns
and rules. Instead of the conventional approach of

4. developing models based on known rules and
theories, data mining tools help predict behaviours
and future trends based on data intelligence when
they arise, allowing businesses to make proactive,
and knowledge-driven decisions in a changing
environment.
Data mining will increase an organisation’s
analytical capability and will act as a fundamental
building block to data enabled Intelligent Networks,
both for developing new systems and prioritising
approaches. It allows water utilities to better
management risks, to optimise water system
designs, and to operate water systems to specific
customer segment’s requirement.
Data mining requires solid information technology
infrastructure, processes, and skills. It involves
combining data sources and introducing new
analysis tools and techniques. It will support an
increased amount and diversity of data, in-depth
analysis processes and maximising potential uses
of data to multiple business processes.
Examples of Data Mining and Knowledge
Discovery applications are provided below:
Update Engineering Design Assumptions -
Traditional design approach relies on applying
safety factors and design factors derived from
statistical analysis of historical data. The
applicability of these design factors becomes
questionable as climate and water usage behaviour
changes. Mining up-to-date data can increase
water utilities’ understanding of the actual
requirements of the changing water systems, thus
enable water utilities to challenge the excessive
redundancy built-in to traditional water systems
design while better manage risks through just in
time augmentation.
Operational Management of Water Systems - water
systems will adapt to changes as the data model
evolves with changing data inputs, such as shifting
populations, consumption and demand, or seasonal
weather patterns. The segmentation and correlation
of detailed customer information with water system
data can generate operational recommendations
(supporting Theme 4: Network Automation
Systems) to address issues to specific customer
segment’s requirement (supporting Theme 1: Real
Time Customer Services).
Theme 4: Network Automation Systems
Vision: “Enhancing the system’s ability to monitor,
analyse and automatically respond in real-time.”
South East Water (2010)
Network Automation Systems refers to the ability of
South East Water to monitor and control its water
and waste-water systems effectively. A key
element of network automation systems is its
capacity to provide an integrated, transparent,
whole-of-system, automated and real-time solution.
Empowered by data mining and knowledge
discovery tools (Theme 3), Network Automation
Systems receive large amount of data collected in
the field, mines this data to establish trends and
patterns, analyse solution scenarios, and provides
recommendations to operators. Operators will be
much better informed for decision making as they
are provided with customer and environmental
impacts relating to the various operational
responses to a situation. This is a significant
improvement compared to traditional SCADA
alarm or alert systems which only report data
anomalies. Examples of recent Network
Automation System innovation by South East
Water include:
TIDE - a new integrated decision support system
under development, that will provide an accurate
real time visual depiction of when, and where
operational intervention is required to prevent
sewer spillage. The system will provide up to the
minute predictions based on multiple data sources
including weather data. It will also have the
intelligence to learn from actual events such that
the accuracy and intelligence of the system will be
enhanced through time.
BlockAid - a sewer blockage detection system that
sends an alarm back to operators for timely manual
response. Coupling with the “Locate Us”
technology, operational truck in close proximity to
the blockage site can be identified to undertake
remedial work. The BlockAid technology
significantly reduces the occurrence of sewer
spillage.
New Remote Online Network (NuRON) - utilising
the concept of virtual district metered areas
(DMAs), where pre-fabricated, all-in-one monitoring
tool boxes are strategically installed at high density
to provide a real-time, detailed system overview of
performances. These monitoring tool boxes are
equipped with low cost, long lasting sensors of
standardised configuration to measure multiple
parameters and to ease large scale
implementation. When fully implemented, the
NuRON system will enable real-time detection of
leakages, water quality issues, and pressure
management.
Pressure Sewer Real Time Alarm System -
involves household based pumps communicating
service performance with each other in real-time.
This enables proactive on-site operational response
to system failure. This technology significantly
reduces customer interruptions to service
provision. Currently, pressure sewers have been
implemented in approximately 1,000 households.
There are opportunities to expand the scheme into

5. another 20,000 households primarily located in
holiday areas.
Theme 5: Coordinate Infrastructure Planning
Vision: “A central depositary of planning
information, shared between key internal and
external stakeholders. Communicate accurate
information to assist organisations in identifying
synergies in works, therefore delivering joint
efficiencies, reduced duplication of works and
minimising community disturbance.” South East
Water (2010)
Coordinated Infrastructure Planning involves
adopting a collaborative approach to the planning
and delivery of infrastructure works. Internally,
Coordinated Infrastructure Planning requires the
synchronisation of information flow and processes
to establish a common basis for planning across all
departments and branches.
Essential to the success of Coordinated
Infrastructure Planning is the timely exchange and
sharing of accurate planning information between
all stakeholders responsible for carrying out works
within a particular area.
Opportunity exists in creating a central planning
communications platform for the sharing of long
term planning information with external
organisations, including geotechnical information,
master plans and frameworks. Governance support
may be required to receive buy-in from all
stakeholders to ensure information remains
accurate.
South East Water has developed Works Central –
a GIS based tool for organisations to coordinate
capital works delivery through sharing information
on scheduled works on the road or underground
infrastructure. This enabled sharing of works
among multiple agencies for joint efficiency and
minimise community disturbance. Work Central is
currently limited to capturing scheduled capital
works over the coming twelve months. There is
scope to expand the tool to longer term and wider
planning applications.
Theme 6: Knowledge Management
Vision: “Enabling people to create, share and apply
valued knowledge, for now and in the future.” South
East Water (2010)
Knowledge in this context is a combination of
expertise, learning and understanding, including
the collation of data and information. The main
components of knowledge management are
people, processes, enabling technologies,
behaviours and culture.
The key opportunity in Knowledge Management is
to create sustainable communities of practices that
foster knowledge sharing. An important enabler will
be having a defined Knowledge Management
platform and transferring existing scattered
knowledge into this platform. For successful
implementation, a behavioural change program
including the designation of knowledge champions
to assist in the transition to a knowledge sharing
culture is essential.
CHALLENGES IN REALISING THE VISIONS OF
INTELLIGENT WATER NETWORKS
Development challenges
The development of system intelligence is a
progressive process. We need to understand the
value propositions when evaluating and adopting
new technology and systems to be effective. While
the Intelligent Networks Review Project engaged
community and stakeholders in widening the
perspectives of customers’ needs and wishes, there
are gaps to fill in establishing customers’
willingness to pay for enhanced services. A
baseline scenario should also be established, to
identify when investments can be balanced out by
capital and operational savings through increased
efficiency.
To ensure investments are centrally managed,
evaluated and allocated to the best value
initiatives, a governance structure is required
supported by a business case assessment model
that can be consistently applied to evaluate
opportunities as they arise.
Investment into new and emerging technologies
and change initiatives imposes relatively high risks
to businesses. Risks can be managed through
adopting a gated approach, in which initiatives are
evaluated and approved in stages. Water utilities
can keep track of technology trends and when a
potential opportunity arises, establish feasibility,
test and pilot them before implementation.
Some of the technologies required for realising the
visions of intelligent water networks are not yet
commercially available due to various engineering
or economical constraints. The challenge for the
industry however, is to be able to work together to
specify the requirements to drive research and
development. The recent development of the
WSAA Domestic Smart Water Meter Specifications
(WSAA, 2010) is an example of industry
collaboration in driving industry development of
product and services.
Implementation challenges
Successful implementation of Intelligent Water
Networks will require a coordinated approach
amongst the water industry and other industries. It
is a journey of both culture and process change
that requires buy-in from stakeholders at all levels.
As the move towards intelligent water networks will
change the way water utilities deliver services, it

6. will create changing needs in corporate capacity
such as competencies and skill sets of people.
THE WAY FORWARD
South East Water has taken the outcomes of the
review onboard and is currently developing an
implementation programme, which demonstrate
the costs and values of pursuing initiatives
identified in the six Intelligent Networks themes. A
governance structure for on-going management is
also being scoped.
Built on the findings from its internal Intelligent
Networks Review Project, South East Water is
currently participating in a Victorian wide intelligent
water networks program, coordinated by VicWater.
In this program, South East Water provides
strategic leadership, coordination, and program
management support. This Victorian program is
lead by the Department of Sustainability and
Environment (DSE). Representatives from 16 out
of 19 Victorian water corporations, WSAA,
Vicwater, and DSE are participating in project
teams. The outcome of this Victorian intelligent
water network program will influence national
directions in intelligent water networks.
CONCLUSION
Intelligent Water Networks involves a paradigm
shift. It offers opportunities to provide water
solutions for a better, more integrated urban water
environment into the future.
The objective of intelligent networks at South East
Water is to enhance customer value and improve
efficiency in service delivery through selectively
developing and adapting potential emerging
technologies and systems to enhance network
intelligence.
The development and implementation of intelligent
water networks faces many challenges before its
visions can be realised. The development of
system intelligence is a progressive process. We
need to understand the value propositions when
evaluating and adopting new technology and
systems to be effective. Successful implementation
of intelligent water networks will require
establishing a true partnership with our customers
and community, and a coordinated approach
amongst stakeholders within, and external to the
water industry.
REFERENCES
AWA 2010. Integrated Water Management Summit
– Water for 10 million Victorians, VIC, Australia
International Association for Public Participation
Australasia. 2004. IAP2 Foundations of Public
Participation.
http://www.iap2.org.au/sitebuilder/resources/kn
owledge/asset/files/38/foundationsdocument.p
df
South East Water 2010. Intelligent Networks
Review Final Report, South East Water, VIC,
Australia.
South East Water 2010. Real Time Services
Development Plan, South East Water, VIC,
Australia
South East Water 2010. Data Mining and
Knowledge Discovery Development Plan,
South East Water, VIC, Australia
South East Water 2010. Network Automation
Systems Development Plan, South East
Water, VIC, Australia
South East Water 2010. Knowledge Management
Development Plan, South East Water, VIC,
Australia
South East Water 2010. Coordinate Infrastructure
Planning Development Plan, South East
Water, VIC, Australia
South East Water 2010. Asset Condition
Assetssment Development Plan, South East
Water, VIC, Australia
WSAA 2010, Domestic Smart Water Meter
Specification, Australia

7. Figure 1: Intelligent Network Review – Innovation Assessment Framework
Knowledge
Management
System
Improvement
Operational
Improvement
Customer
Choice
External
Communication
Servicing
Synergies
Real-time Service
Reporting
2.6 2.0 2.8 2.5 2.6 2.3 2.5
Data Mining 3.0 3.0 2.8 1.5 2.0 2.3 2.4
Increase Monitoring
and Control
2.8 2.5 2.2 2.0 2.6 2.0 2.3
Knowledge
Management
3.0 2.8 2.4 2.0 1.8 2.0 2.3
Real-time Decision
Support System
2.8 2.8 3.0 2.0 1.7 1.3 2.3
Coordinate
Infrastructure Planning
2.0 1.7 2.0 2.0 1.3 2.8 2.0
Network Management
Automation
2.5 2.4 2.8 1.3 1.5 1.0 1.9
Key Challenges
Average
Challenge
Score
Intelligent Network
- Themes of
Innovation Areas
HIGH 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 LOW
Figure 2: An Example of Multi-criteria Decision Scoring Matrix

8. Figure 3: South East Water Strategic Diagram
Figure 4: The Themes and Dynamics of Intelligent Water Networks