This Month, Oliver Grievson, Associate Director AtkinsRéalis and Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, considers the benefits of the data and information revolution.
The water industry has always been described as being data rich and information poor – and the data that the industry has collected as part of its daily operations has always been used internally.
However, increasingly more data is being shared openly, and with that openness the industry faces the risk of data being misinterpreted or simply having a high level of uncertainty associated with it.
Earlier this year, water companies shared their “real-time” event duration monitoring maps on their company websites to tell customers whether a combined storm overflow is spilling to the environment within an hour of the monitor being activated. This is part of the requirements of Section 81 of the Environment Act and will also cover a whole range of environmental monitoring that water companies undertake.
We, as an industry, are entering an era when key data such as overflows are openly shared along with a whole host of other performance-based data. What might be under-estimated by those who are calling for all of the data to be shared is the huge amount of work that has to be done by the technicians, data analysts and subject-matter experts within the industry in order to share it, and these people and their skills are already in a short supply.
Earlier this year a study by campaigner and academic, Professor Peter Hammond, called into question the data from one water company, challenging the company’s performance in terms of flows and spills. It’s an issue that some water companies were aware of and as such, have put in place secondary monitoring to ensure the data that is collected is as accurate as possible. It does highlight the challenge that water companies face. By reporting results in near real-time there is a massive and costly challenge in ensuring the data reflects reality.
At the same time there are huge benefits for the use of real-time data, which will require new skills and capabilities to unlock. Companies are starting to use the concepts of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to adapt and ensure the data that is collected provides the best possible understanding of the situational awareness within its operational network. This is enabling water companies to use the data to improve environmental performance by optimising the investment in the water and wastewater infrastructure to provide the best value for money and the best environmental outcomes.
The monitoring that has been and will be installed represents a significant investment by water companies not only in its initial installation and the ongoing maintenance work, but also in getting the best value out of the data collected – and converting it into insightful and informed decisions.
There is a huge value in all of the data that is collected to help customers, the water industry and the environment. Examples of where water companies have already realised this value, on a global scale, is in reducing leakage, working with customers to reduce per capita consumption and there are numerous case studies where this has been delivered.
The advent of the data and information revolution that the water industry is currently experiencing is this – despite the challenges we face around gathering accurate data, the information benefits far outweigh the cost, and the real work in the coming years is going to be in realising as much value as we possibly can.
