Water New Zealand’s 2025 Modelling Symposium was held in Hamilton New Zealand on the 18th and 19th of March 2025. It was a very well organised and successful event and Urban Water Solutions was delighted to have 3 staff in attendance and 2 podium presentations.
Session 1 in the “Modelling and data analytics stream”, was opened by UWS Professional Engineer, Christian Calabro. Christian presented a case study titled “Improved Modelling of Sewage Pumping Stations in Manifolded Systems.” Christian’s presentation documented how the use of pressure loggers on rising mains helped with the model calibration of a complex pumped system. The network contains eight individual pumping stations where each pump operates at a different flow rate depending upon the combination of other pumps active at the time. This project innovatively used pressure loggers and SPS SCADA data as an alternate to traditional flow monitoring. As the installation of pressure loggers is safer and easier than those requiring entry to the system the adoption of this methodology will allow regular calibration and update of the model as growth occurs.
Aidan Sloggett’s presentation on the second day of the symposium appeared in the “Digital” stream and was titled “Integrating Network and Wastewater Treatment Plant Modelling”. Several case studies were presented to demonstrate the need for assessing the interactions between the treatment plant (WWTP) and the sewerage network.
The first study reviewed how recirculation of wet weather flows between the WWTP’s storm basin and the sewerage network can cause significant operational issues during wet weather events. A second example examined the benefits of modelling storm lagoons over long durations to gain a greater understanding of the availability of wet weather storage and how successive rainfall events impact the system performance. The final example looked at the hydraulic conditions at the WWTP outfall, and the impact on not only the WWTP but the influent sewerage system.
Both presentations were very well received, and our team also benefitted from the other informative presentations delivered at the symposium.
