Uncovered: hidden water infrastructure
In this extremely jam-packed edition of the One Water Blog newsletter, we shine a light on hidden infrastructure. There's a lot we don't see - but also a lot of infrastructure potential that we'll see if we look hard enough.
Water networks under our feet
Product Marketing Manager Trevor English is a very good writer. He joined us last year on the Autodesk Water Infrastructure team, and he's been publishing blockbuster story after story ever since. His recent One Water Blog post Unseen infrastructure: The underground networks that keep the world turning was so well-received that he decided to create a super-fun, super-instructive companion YouTube video.
You see, in addition to being a good writer and a bonafide water engineer, Trevor also happens to run the Concerning Reality YouTube Channel, which is wildly successful - and rightly so. You know a YouTube channel is good when you read the comments and smile instead of cringe. Thank you, Trevor, for all of your outstanding work!
A river used to run through it
Patrick Bonk pointed us to an excellent interactive story published this week by the CBC. It's about daylighting creeks and rivers. If you're not familiar with the concept, it's all about uncovering the details of forgotten waterways that were buried by city expansion and thinking about how you might bring them back, along with all of the benefits they used to provide – like helping to alleviate flooding. Give it a scroll: Discover where ancient rivers flow under Canadian cities.
Our SWMM guru Bob Dickinson notes that San Franciscans have been working on a similar effort for awhile, which is partially funded by Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame.
It's alive! The power potential underwater.
It's depressing to think that the world's energy production through fossil fuels has actually increased since the Paris Accord was signed seven years ago. Now might be a good time start advocating for the idea that there are an abundance of energy sources available to us that we have yet to take advantage of. Can we power the world with the sun and water and... plants?
Nova Innova, a bio-design studio in Rotterdam founded by Ermi van Oers has been working on a prototype of a device that does just that. POND (Power Of Nature-based Design) is designed to harvest energy from organic compounds that are broken down by electrogenic bacteria in the water, which generates energy to power a light and measure water quality.
The light gradually changes from "healthy" blue to "unhealthy" red as the water becomes polluted. The globe also acts like a magnifying glass, allowing you to see what's going on underneath the surface, but the real power comes when you start thinking about this as a potential network of floating infrastructure. Ermi's goal is to get people thinking about water as not just a potential source of energy but as a living organism that deserves a lot more respect. Indeed, it deserves our partnership.
They've also been working on Living Light Park in Rotterdam and Living Light, a locally-sourced, partially 3-D printed, hand-assembled indoor planter that harnesses electrons from naturally occurring processes in the soil to produce light as your plant grows. Sound interesting? Watch The Making of Living Light.
These are the kinds of breakthrough ideas that seem magical but that are based on science and nature-focused thinking. Seeing these in their prototyping phase make us think that the future might not be as dark as we fear, after all.
Lost but not forgotten
Product Manager Anthony Andrews, who is based in the UK, clued us into Hidden Hydrology's post about a 1962 book called Lost Rivers of London. Paul King, who runs Hidden Hydrology, believes this could be the earliest versions of a hidden hydrology publication focused exclusively on urban areas.
Florida is essentially building greywater infrastructure
We read a depressing story last week about the rising number of Florida residents who are leaving the Sunshine State, but we want to point out an area where Florida is innovating: It's leading the US in water reclamation. Florida's Senate Bill 64, which was enacted in 2021, mandates the statewide cessation of non-beneficial surface water discharges. This is encouraging more and more Florida water utilities to invest in water reclamation projects and turn their effluent into greywater for irrigation. It's already making a difference. In 2022, recycled water replaced the use of drinking water for things like irrigation by nearly 200 million gallons per day.
Our own Youssef Al Fahham is actually putting the final touches on a story right now for the One Water Blog about a Florida-based consultancy and how they're helping a water utility with a water reclamation program that treats effluent for reuse as greywater. Be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks, but if you want to hear more about Tampa's reclaimed water strategy (and if you can get past the overwhelming number of ads on the page), read Here’s a look at Tampa Bay’s reclaimed water, and the future of reuse.
What's new on the OWB
New customer story alert!
Our boss liked our new story about Baton Rouge-based consultancy Bonton Associates, who are helping local water utilities improve their processes with data analytics. In fact, our boss said, "It goes down easy like a comforting bowl of gumbo." Huge thanks to Darius Bonton for sitting with us and sharing the history of his 10-year-old, family-run consultancy. Read Bonton Associates: Technology is their key differentiator.
A silver lining to the UK's water woes?
If you haven't heard by now, the UK water industry is practically in crisis mode. Minutes before publishing this newsletter, word came that Thames Water may default on its significant debt. This comes on the heels of growing citizen frustration about CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) spills doubling in 2023.
But there is one bright spot in the UK water industry: it's time for a new 5-year (AMP) funding round, which could inject £96B in funding throughout the industry for things like modernisation through digitisation and adoption of more SuDS-based approaches. As makers of drainage design (InfoDrainage) and hydraulic modeling software (InfoWorks ICM), we are keenly interested in helping UK water professionals move away from old ways and adopt nature-centric, digital apps and processes.
We talk to customers about it all the time. Read Are UK water professionals ready for AMP8? We asked them.
While we may be clearly biased, we genuinely think that software can help solve the CSO hardware problem. We're currently working on a new paper about AMP8 and will talk about it in a future newsletter when it's ready to publish.
Maptacular Esri developments
Our Esri integrations are growing. Patrick Bonk and Martha Nunez write about Info360 Asset’s powerful new integration with ESRI apps.
Expanding the rooftop: let's build more blue-green infrastructure
The Dutch are Old Masters at water infrastructure. When confronted with difficult water challenges, they've have traditionally gone big, fighting floods for centuries with dykes and windmills. Now, they’re innovating with water in smaller ways, investing in Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) and micro-water management in densely populated cities.
Forward thinkers like Waternet (our customer!) and its many partners are doing something extra innovative by attempting to create a brand-new layer of public/private space, one whose climate-conscious benefits can be applied to all of its citizens.
One page to house them all
We just published a new page that houses all of our Water Webinars. Sign up for new ones or watch old ones at your leisure.
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