Patrick Bonk
Martha Nunez
With our recent development efforts to bring InfoWorks ICM results into Info360 Asset, asset managers can now assess system capacity issues, evaluate LoF and CoF, and identify critical storm durations that impact the sewer and drainage network. This data-driven approach enables you better formulate your risk analyses and prioritize CIP more effectively, focusing on areas with the highest risk and potential impact.
Water utilities from small to large utilize data for both hydraulic modeling and for managing their assets. But is it the same data? If your hydraulic modelers and asset managers are working in separate data silos, you may be missing out on some powerful synergies that can be realized by sharing key system performance information. Perhaps even more important, you may be missing out cost savings in your Capital Improvement Projects (CIP).
Just as we did with InfoWater Pro earlier this year, our recent release of InfoWorks ICM featured Return Period Analysis (RPA) grid report export, which allows you to send your hydraulic modeling data for use within the Info360 platform with the push of a button. Once you’ve sent that data to the Info360 platform, you can use it to better inform your sewer and drainage network risk and rehabilitation planning, incorporate system capacity issues and identify areas with a higher consequence of failure if surcharging or flooding is anticipated. But perhaps most importantly, it can help you prioritize your investments.
For example, asset managers can utilize the results from sewer hydraulic models to identify areas where the network capacity is insufficient, such as pipes and manholes that frequently reach capacity or experience surcharging. When evaluating Consequence of Failure (CoF), you can use hydraulic model metrics like flood volumes, where higher overflow volumes indicate a higher consequence. To determine likelihood of Failure (LoF), you can use your hydraulic model’s return period data to assess the likelihood of pipe surcharge and manhole flooding; lower return periods suggest higher risk events.
How InfoWorks ICM data can help asset managers
When you want to send your RPA results directly from InfoWorks ICM to Info360 Asset, you have a number of options to consider like surcharge conditions and the duration and volume of flooding for a given storm even. Which data is most useful to consider?
- Profile view: Start by looking at the profile view to see the hydraulic state of the network, including surcharge conditions (when pipes are overfilled) and flooded manholes. These are visually indicated, often with color coding.
- RPA: Analyze the simulation results to determine the worst-case scenario for each pipe and manhole. This involves identifying the minimum return period at which pipes surcharge or manholes flood.
- Critical duration: Identify the duration of rainfall events that most critically impact the network. By focusing on these specific durations, asset managers can pinpoint the storm events that cause the most significant surcharging and flooding concentrating efforts on mitigating specific storm conditions that cause the most damage.
How asset managers can use the data for risk analysis
Our Info360 Asset customers are, naturally, focused intently on risk analysis. They can use this simulation data to help them with some of their most important calculations:
- Assessing LoF: Use the return period data to assess the likelihood of pipe surcharge and manhole flooding; lower return periods indicate higher risk events.
- Evaluating CoF: Analyzing metrics such as flood volume to determine the potential impact of failures; higher overflow volumes correspond to higher consequences.
- Identifying critical duration: Recognizing the durations of rainfall events that most critically impact the network to highlight the most significant storm durations. By knowing which storm durations cause the most damage, efforts can be concentrated on mitigating these specific storm conditions.
How asset managers can better prioritize CIP
You can combine hydraulic performance data with asset condition data to prioritize network inspections, rehabilitations and upgrades effectively using risk-based prioritization. These calculations can be very useful for asset managers, helping them prioritize their CIP in different ways:
- Capacity assessments: Identify pipes and manholes that frequently reach capacity or experience surcharging. These assets are prioritized for inspection (eg, CCTV surveys) and potential upsizing or rehabilitation.
- Risk-based prioritization: Use LoF and CoF metrics to prioritize your investments. Focus on areas with higher risk and greater potential impact to ensure most critical improvements are addressed first.
- Condition and performance: Combine hydraulic performance data with asset condition data to form a holistic view of the network. By considering both the asset’s current physical state and operational performance you’ll be able to have more effective prioritization within your CIP.
- Master planning: Incorporate the insights from hydraulic modeling into long-term master planning, ensuring that future growth and demand are adequately addressed.
- Renewal and replacement: You have important decisions to make on thousands of aging assets; when should you rehab or replace? What’s the most cost-effective way to do it? Having your hydraulic model results helps inform strategies on how best to maintain and improve your network reliability and efficiency.
Integration for your data, your workflows and your teams
By combining hydraulic performance data with asset condition data, you can better form an actual view of your network, ensuring that inspections, rehabilitations, and upgrades are both strategic and as cost-effective as possible. Incorporating both current asset condition and network performance over future time horizons for master planning purposes ensures that future growth and demand are adequately addressed, while informed renewal and replacement decisions help maintain and improve network reliability and efficiency today.
Want to try it yourself? Start your free 30-day trial of Info360 Asset to leverage a simple to use SaaS solution to ensure your water and wastewater networks remain reliable, resilient and prepared for future growth.