Las Vegas Valley Water District Selects InfoMaster Smart Asset Management Solution

Innovyze Software to Help Optimize Rehabilitation, Decrease Operational Costs, Improve Efficiency and Extend Lifespan of Critical Assets at One of Largest US Water Utilities

Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, recently announced that the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) has chosen industry-leading InfoMaster software to help plan and manage its water distribution improvement program.

One of the nation’s largest and most progressive water utilities, the LVVWD is a not-for-profit government agency that provides water to more than one million people in Southern Nevada. Its service area includes the City of Las Vegas; the unincorporated areas of Clark County including Paradise and Winchester, where the major Las Vegas Strip casinos are located; Kyle Canyon; Blue Diamond; Searchlight; and Jean. Its transmission and distribution system consists of more than 4,500 miles of underground pipeline. The decision helps LVVWD leverage its investment in ArcGIS technology from Esri (Redlands, CA) by enhancing it with sophisticated modeling analytics for water systems capital planning and renewal.

“InfoMaster is a comprehensive GIS-centric analytics-driven risk-based asset management tool that allows us to create a logical and cost-effective strategy for the preventive maintenance and repair of our transmission and distribution system,” said Laura B. Jacobsen, P.E., D.WRE, Planning Manager at LVVWD. “Proper analysis and preventive maintenance allow us to repair the right pipelines at the right time at minimum cost and inconvenience to the public. Protecting the integrity of the distribution network is of vital importance in delivering safe and reliable drinking water to the public.”

Many of the world’s water distribution systems are reaching or have exceeded their design lives, and urgently need extensive upgrading through rehabilitation, repair, and/or replacement. As aging systems deteriorate, they become increasingly vulnerable to structural failures and are plagued by excessive leaks, drops in carrying capacity, poor water quality, and service disruptions. Age-related infrastructure failures are often unexpected and catastrophic, resulting in significant service disruptions, flooding, and local area damage. The only financially responsible solution is to create well-engineered, risk-based capital improvement plans.

InfoMaster comprehensive GIS-centric asset integrity analytical modeling techniques provide reliable pipe failure predictions, even for limited failure records and with application to different pipe materials. They include the non-homogeneous Markov chain process (NHMC), non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), Linear Extended Yule Process (LEYP), the Cox proportional hazards model, and the advanced time-based probabilistic Weibull and Herz models. These techniques can be effectively used to evaluate a variety of pipe characteristics related to failure and can consider all pipes in the network, not just those with breaks or other failures.

Armed with these powerful models, utilities can accurately assess the aging processes of their water network pipes and estimate their lifetimes and structural/functional failure potential and distribution over time. Such capabilities can significantly assist water utilities in assessing their pipes’ propensity to fail, identifying critical ones (more prone to failure), prioritizing their inspection and determining rehabilitation requirements. This proactive “fix before break” approach can help utilities extend the useful life of their assets and improve their performance at maximum savings.

“Strong asset performance modeling and capital planning capabilities are critical components of a smart enterprise asset management strategy,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, Dist.D.NE, Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, President, COO and Chief Technical Officer of Innovyze. “InfoMaster delivers detailed and accurate analyses and reports that help utility managers make better decisions on when to repair, replace, or rehabilitate their critical assets. It also supports them in developing reliable long-term funding strategies for such projects. These advantages help utilities ensure the long-term sustainability of their water infrastructures and their ongoing ability to deliver the required level of service at the lowest lifecycle cost. Innovyze is proud to be a part of LVVWD’s success as a key component of this complex synthesis.”

About Innovyze
Innovyze is a leading global provider of wet infrastructure business analytics software solutions designed to meet the technological needs of water and wastewater utilities, government agencies, and engineering organizations worldwide. Its clients include the majority of the largest UK, Australasia and North American cities, foremost utilities on all five continents, and ENR top-rated design firms. With unparalleled expertise and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the Innovyze connected portfolio of best-in-class product lines empowers thousands of engineers to competitively plan, manage, design, protect, operate and sustain highly efficient and reliable infrastructure systems, and provides an enduring platform for customer success. For more information, visit www.innovyze.com.