Technology underpins New Plymouth project

Advanced Three Waters technology solutions are assisting the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) to better understand its wastewater network.

Citycare Water is working in partnership with Beca, Black & Veatch and Watershed Engineering on this project and the team has a collective track record in designing and implementing advanced technology solutions.

NPDC has embarked on a programme to develop knowledge of the existing district-wide wastewater network to better understand capacity and performance.

Wastewater reticulation network and rainfall data is being collected, modelled and interpreted over two winter seasons to help forecast future network demand, the council says.

The modelling project will help NPDC use wastewater network data to enable ongoing strategic management and provide a baseline for system performance, while supporting wastewater systems planning, design and construction for projected urban growth, it says.

Also, the data will provide insights for managing system performance during significant wet weather events and related network inflow and infiltration (I&I).

Data is being received from devices via a combination of automated data transfer using the cellular network as well as onsite field data capture in poor reception areas.

A total of 130 flow gauges and 22 rain gauges were installed.

Specialist teams from Field Service Limited and Asset Monitoring Limited assist with installation and ongoing monitoring and data processing for the high number of sites.

Also, nine flow gauges were installed to capture permanent flow data.

I&I investigation work will be undertaken as follow-up to the flow monitoring and modelling and is likely to include CCTV, Distributed Temperature Sensing Technology and household inspections and analysis activities, with data being used to resolve I&I problems and refine the model.