WATER LOSS AND LEAK DETECTION RESOURCES

• Geospatial AI And The New Italian Renaissance

  Under pressure to radically improve leak detection and prevention, Italian water utility Acquedotto del Fiora is the latest European water company to adopt geospatial artificial intelligence (AI) techniques as part of its plans to boost performance.

• Resolving Utility Pain Points With Better Analytics

  Fear of the unknown is a common concern among water distribution and wastewater collection system operators when buried infrastructure or incomplete recordkeeping obscure leaks, inefficiencies, and the causes behind them. Finding better ways to identify and quantify utility problem areas is like searching for hidden treasure. Fortunately, comprehensive analytics solutions built around existing mapping and data points offer new hope.

• Leveraging Digital Infrastructure Management Technology For Real-World Benefits

  For many utilities, large and small, hang-ups over new and innovative technology for infrastructure management often boil down to “How are we going to implement (or pay for) all of that?” Fortunately, a new approach to integrating existing GIS and asset data, Internet of Things (IoT) real-time data collection, powerful analytical software, and more is providing solutions to turn tough challenges into manageable solutions that are accessible on a subscription basis.

• Got Water? Regional Water Supply & The Economy

  Got water? Sure, most of us in the United States do. But do we ever stop to smell the roses of odorless fresh potable water? Do we reflect on what reliable water means for the economic life of our community? Texas’s harsh deep freeze earlier this year reminded us Texans of our vulnerability, and after $200B in damages, it gave us a glimpse of how life looks without the core services that we take for granted daily.

• Listening For — And Finding — The Leaks That Can’t Be Seen

  Decades ago, farmers and ranchers around San Marcos, Texas, formed a utility to get water to cattle. Today, Crystal Clear Special Utility District (CCSUD) serves not only rural operations but swaths of a growing metropolis stretching from San Antonio to Austin, providing water to nearly 6,000 connections.

• New Pipe Installation Fails Multiple Acoustic & Pressure Testing Until Electro Scan Finds Water Leak Location

  Balfour Beatty was unable to determine why a new pipe installation, a 600mm (24 inch) diameter Cement Mortar Lined Ductile Iron, 170m (560ft) pipe length was unable to pass multiple hydrostatic pressure test. Using multiple above ground and in-pipe acoustic sensors, data correlators, data loggers, and listening sticks, no leak locations could be found.

• Standards For Testing And Certifying Cured-In-Place Pipe

  It is estimated that nearly 75,000 miles of wastewater and water pipelines have been lined with Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP), with nearly $3 billion spent annually on the trenchless renovation method, worldwide. Recognizing the growing use of CIPP and inability of CCTV inspection to accurately or consistently certify trenchless rehabilitation as defect-free, this paper chronicles the emergence of new guidelines to test, certify, and accept CIPP lining projects, using Focused Electrode Leak Location (FELL) inspection.

• Use Of Low Voltage Conductivity To Conduct A 10km (30,461 LF) Inspection Of Legacy Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) For A Leak Assessment Project

  In 2017, the Institute of Underground Infrastructure (IKT), Gelsenkirchen, Germany, utilized low voltage conductivity to test a variety of trenchless Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) short-liners to locate and quantify leaks, several of which were utilized in a multi-million rehabilitation project in Kansas City, Missouri (USA).

• Technology As A Strategy Against The Growing Issue Of Water Scarcity

  Smart cities technologist Peter Williams and Aquify – An Exelon company have released a new white paper on water scarcity and the solutions water utilities can implement to help stem the tide on the trillions of gallons lost to underground leaks. 

• Why Invest Time And Resources In Reducing Non-Revenue Water?

  As the incentive to minimize non-revenue water and decrease OPEX becomes ever more imperative among U.S. utilities, lessons can be learned from pioneering Danish utilities that had to do a similar maneuver 20 years ago and today have one of the lowest water-loss rates in the world.