Data, AI and the water sector

Water Breakthrough Challenge 1

Ahead of announcing the winners from the Catalyst stream of our Water Breakthrough Challenge 2 competition, we’re looking back at some of our previous winners from our first Water Breakthrough Challenge. Read on, and watch their interviews, to find out more about three initiatives using data and artificial intelligence to make a difference.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and open data have long been lauded as key enablers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, unlocking new opportunities for innovation and efficiency in almost every sector. Developed consciously, these technologies can also have a democratising effect, providing unparalleled levels of transparency for citizens, revealing insights into their own behaviour, and the behaviour of governments, businesses and service providers.

The water sector is no exception to these opportunities. Ofwat’s ‘H2Open – Open Data in the water industry’ paper (published in October 2021) sets out a clear case for change, calling on the sector to continue to make use of the wealth of data it holds to drive innovation, enhance customer experience, and to better work together to address shared challenges.

Through our first Water Breakthrough Challenge, three winners are leading the charge and collaborating widely to develop cutting-edge, data-driven solutions which can deliver new benefits for customers, society and environment.

There’s a serious risk, driven by climate change and population growth, that parts of England will run out of water in 50 years. Safe Smart Systems, led by Anglian Water, will deliver the first step towards an automated system which can identify, predict and manage vulnerabilities in the network. This AI-powered decision engine will give water companies visibility for how their network is performing, helping to identify problems early and reduce leakage, service interruptions, and pressure issues across the whole water cycle. This will help drive improved service for customers, while also reducing the water wastage (and associated carbon) from issues such as leakage.

Anglian Water are collaborating with a wide range of partners to deliver this initiative, including the likes of Microsoft, the Centre for Digital Built Britain, and water companies – including international partners such as Yarra Valley Water in Melbourne, Australia. Through this project, Anglian Water will be setting out a pathway for other members of the sector to adopt the approaches they demonstrate.

So far, individual water companies have been able to use open data and Artificial Intelligence to gradually improve their performance in delivering services . Through this initiative, Severn Trent are leading this cross-sector coalition to go much further, piloting an autonomous system to monitor an entire waste catchment. By bringing together extensive testing with emerging technologies, this approach can work through huge amounts of data to provide real-time insights to help water companies reduce the risk of flooding and sewerage pollution in a catchment: delivering benefits for  both customers and the environment.

Through this project, the delivery team will be developing a tried and tested blueprint for how this approach can be scaled across the UK. More broadly, the team hope that this project can be a catalyst for wider use of AI in the water sector, building trust and demonstrating the value of this important technology.

Only 14% of English rivers are in ‘good health’, but current approaches to river monitoring are not able to adequately identify water quality issues and causes with certainty. Also, what data does exist is often not shared, leading to siloed and fragmented decision making which makes it difficult to understand national environmental trends. This project, led by United Utilities in collaboration with the Rivers Trust, aims to empower local communities to gather robust data which can be shared with decision makers, customers and other stakeholders, allowing evidence-based catchment management decisions.

Starting in eight demonstration catchments, United Utilities, the Rivers Trust and the rest of the delivery partners will be developing a national framework of standardised tools and training which can allow this citizen-led approach to be adopted at scale. It’s also hoped that by engaging customers in the collection of data, this project can improve transparency and build trust with local stakeholders.

We’ll be sharing more case studies over the coming weeks – make sure to follow Ofwat on Twitter and LinkedIn to see them as they’re posted. You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to be among the first to hear exciting news and updates about Ofwat’s Innovation Fund.

Interested in entering a future competition? We’ll be running another competition later this year, and will be releasing more information over the Summer. In the meantime, you may wish to find a partner through our webpages.