Posted on March 27, 2024
Arcadis, a leading global design and consultancy organization for natural and built assets, today announced that it will lead development of a digital twin and updates for the City of Houston’s water distribution model in partnership with Houston Public Works. Arcadis is the prime consultant on the three-year, $5.7 million project and will work with three subconsultants.
As the fourth largest city in the U.S., Houston has experienced growing water demands from rapid population growth. The existing planning-level water distribution model addresses generalized impacts on neighborhoods, but lacks the detail needed to manage localized impacts such as low water pressure or temporary loss of water on individual customers. With a complete update and calibration of the model, and advancing to a digital twin, Houston Public Works will manage the complex water distribution system hydraulics and water quality with the capabilities to monitor each customer meter efficiently and identify any impacts or level of service anomalies for individual customers while the system is constantly changing.
The project aims to implement a sustainable and efficient water system to meet current and future needs of Houston residents. Arcadis will perform a comprehensive review, update and calibration of the model using an “Intelligent Water” approach. The end goals of the project are to deliver safe water to residents, provide solutions that address critical planning and operational needs and support the City’s capital improvement programs.
Satish Tripathi, Managing Engineer at Houston Water, said: “Houston Water is currently developing a digital twin, aimed at improving decision-making and community service through updating the city’s hydraulic model to align with modern AI-era modeling techniques. The Water Infrastructure Planning Group has chosen Arcadis as our partner in this endeavor. We are optimistic that this project will establish a new standard in modeling practices and expand the application of models within the framework of digital twins.”
Jim Cooper, Global Director of Water Optimization at Arcadis, said: “Arcadis is honored to partner with the City of Houston on this project. It will improve the experience of anyone who consumes water in the Houston area. The project aims to go beyond delivering an exceptional water distribution system model, but to redefine what’s possible in the water sector when you combine engineering, physical science, and data science such as with the application of Artificial Intelligence in digital twins. I am proud to contribute to the efforts of this collaborative team.”
Arcadis is an industry leader in water distribution system modeling with significant project experience for the largest and most complex models across the U.S., including New York City, Los Angeles, Great Lakes Water Authority, Atlanta and Cincinnati.
