Smarter Sewer Systems: Using Continuous Monitoring To Improve Operations And Planning

Wastewater utilities face growing pressure from aging infrastructure, limited budgets, workforce constraints, and increasingly severe weather events. Excess wet-weather flows can drive up operating costs, increase the likelihood of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), strain treatment plant capacity, and accelerate capital improvement needs. To effectively manage these challenges, utilities need greater visibility into how their collection systems are performing and where operational risks exist before they become costly problems. 

This webinar will demonstrate how utilities are using high-density wastewater network monitoring and advanced level sensor analytics to transform sewer system operations and asset management. By deploying low-cost, IoT-enabled sensors throughout the collection system, utilities can continuously monitor both wet-weather and dry-weather conditions, providing actionable insights that traditional short-term flow studies often miss. Participants will learn how these systems help identify infiltration and inflow (I&I), detect blockages, assess overflow risk, monitor pump station and force main performance, and distinguish between operational issues and capacity limitations. 

Through real-world utility case studies, attendees will see how continuous monitoring and predictive analytics are being used to prioritize maintenance activities, optimize resource allocation, reduce operating costs, improve regulatory compliance, and make more informed capital planning decisions. The session will provide practical examples of how better system intelligence enables utilities to proactively prevent problems, improve service reliability, and maximize the value of existing wastewater infrastructure. 

Key Learning Objectives: 

• Evaluate how continuous sewer monitoring and advanced analytics provide greater visibility into wastewater collection system conditions and performance, enabling utilities to identify emerging issues before they become service disruptions
• Identify practical applications of sensor-dense monitoring data, including overflow risk assessment, inflow and infiltration evaluation, blockage detection, cleaning optimization, and pump station performance monitoring
• Apply monitoring and analytics insights to support asset management strategies, prioritize maintenance and rehabilitation activities, reduce operational risk, and optimize capital investment decisions