Urban Water Solutions are pleased to welcome our former Technical Officer, Max Ford, in his new role as Graduate Engineer.  Max completed his Bachelor of Civil Engineering in 2018.

Welcome back Max.

Urban Water Solutions proudly supports the following organisations:

• Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA website)
  
• Guide Dogs Victoria (Guide Dogs Victoria website)
  
• Oxfam Trail Walk (Oxfam Trailwalker website)
  
• Melbourne High Old Boys Football Club (MHSOBFC website)
  

 

Urban Water Solutions were delighted to share recent project experiences at the Innovyze User Days in November 2018.

Irene Estrada-Subirats and Ann Pugh presented on modelling work undertaken to determine what impact a customer’s internal plumbing will have on their experience of supply pressure.

Using assumptions about different pipe roughnesses and demands it was possible to generate a series of plots showing the potential impacts of a customer’s pipework.  The ‘pressure related demand’ function within InfoWorks WS Pro was used to determine the impact that competing demands would have on each other.  Examples included the impact of garden watering on showering, and two showers in a double storey house competing for water.

 

Graduate Engineer, Aidan Sloggett, showed how an InfoWorks ICM model was used to determine the sizing of a dry weather pump at Rotary Park Sewage Pumping Station (SPS) which is estimated to save over 80% of the annual energy costs at this site.

He also demonstrated how Failure Based Assessments can be used to provide operations with information regarding time and location of spill in the event of pump station failure.  The presentation also showed how operational controls such as ‘interlocks’ can be developed to optimise the use of SPS storage in minimising spill volumes in the event of pump failure or during wet weather events.

In early August Urban Water Solutions attended the Pacific Water and Waste Association (PWWA) Conference in New Caledonia.

The conference’s focus this year was on sharing information and experience that will inspire local communities to implement innovative and forward-looking solutions.

Neil Moody presented a well-received paper highlighting the success of a recent project undertaken by UWS in Apia, Samoa, followed by a discussion of the benefits Pressure Sewer Systems (PSS) can bring to coastal communities – particularly around improved public and environmental health, minimised up front capital expense, improved system operations (particularly at the treatment plant and associated pumps) and increased resilience to impacts of climate change.

For more details on this Apia PSS project use the following link (Apia project)

In July 2018 UWS hosted a Year 10 Work Experience student.  Liam quickly got to work on MapInfo, creating plans for site works, reviewing CCTV data and analysing pump curves.

Also starting in late June was Tom, our engineering intern.  Tom has been learning about hydraulic models, specifically InfoWorks ICM, starting with the collation of raw data and data entry for pressure sewer network design.

From left to right: Irene, Davide, Kim, Liam, Kerry, Tom, Kiara, Brad and Aidan

On May the 4^th a crowd gathered at Level 1, 8 Gipps Street to celebrate Urban Water Solutions’ eleventh anniversary.

Past employees, colleagues, clients and friends were all welcomed and Neil provided a summary of the past eleven years.

Reminiscences of past office locations, time spent working on projects in Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas, as well as the many varied domestic projects.

Many memories were shared, including the following ‘blasts from the past’.

 

AWA 2010 Dinner

 

Movember