What will the Next Generation of Water Systems look like in Singapore?

WATER. DIGITAL. RESILIENCE

What will the Next Generation of Water Systems look like in Singapore?

Co-authored with Nasrine Tomasi, a Technical Director for Smart Water with 15 years’ experience in water resources engineering.

30 JAN 2022

3 MINS READ

ISMAIL WEILIANG

The Climatebender

NASRINE TOMASI

Co-author

Technical Director for Smart Water

Views are entirely ours

and not connected to any company

The future of water is digital

Singapore is facing significant water challenges in our time, namely climate change, increasing water demand, rising costs, and ageing infrastructure. This inflicts substantial pressure on Singapore’s water systems. Singapore needs to adapt to meet the essential demands of delivering safe and sustainable drinking water, stormwater management and wastewater management within the context of a changing climate.

Addressing these growing challenges in an increasingly changing, complex and uncertain world necessitate the next generation of water systems in Singapore to go beyond the traditional. Digital is disrupting the water sector and its pace and scale is increasing. It is empowering us to derive insights enabling better informed decisions in planning, financing, delivering, operating, and maintaining our existing water systems.

The Big 5 Digital Enablers

There are 5 tech enablers identified within the SMART PUB Roadmap, a 5-year plan unveiled in SIWW (Singapore International Water Week) 2018, to be deployed across the entire value chain from planning to operations & maintenance. AI: Machine Learning for Decision Support systems. IoT: For Connectivity of sensors and devices. Data Analytics: Harnessing big data for insights. Autonomous Vehicles: Robots or unmanned vehicles to perform manual tasks. Digital Twins: Process Simulations for different scenarios.

The Next Generation of Water Systems in Singapore

There are many potential applications in Singapore to be explored. The Smart Drainage Grid can

have extensive hydrometeorological monitoring and predictions. Flood management can shift from reactive to predictive to prescriptive where we have confidence of what will occur in future events, what is the most effective response is and the outcome of the response. The data can be used for strategic planning of Singapore’s catchment and waterways. The Smart Plants can have optimised operations and decision support with process digital twins. Operations will be man-less with automation. The Smart Water Grid can have extensive monitoring of network pressure, flow, and water quality. It can have pre-emptive leak detection with as our networks age. There can be predictive load dispatch with demand forecasting via machine learning. The Smart Sewer Grid can have pre-emptive asset repair and replacement with the network monitored for structural integrity. Illegal discharges tracing and modelling can also be done to protect our sewers better.

Digital Twin Platforms

From supplying good water, reclaiming used water and taming storm water in Singapore, digital twin solution platforms such as Moata Smart Water has PUB covered.

(In line with PUB mission “Supply Good Water. Reclaim Used Water. Tame Storm Water. Resist Rising Seas”)

Authors:

Nasrine Tomasi has 15 years’ experience in water resources engineering. She is currently Mott MacDonald’s Moata’s Global Smart Water Product Lead where she drives innovation and digital delivery through water projects. Nasrine has been instrumental in the development and deployment of Mott MacDonald’s digital twin platform Moata, which has been leveraged in multiple projects to deliver better insights for decision makers in the water

sector.

Ismail Weiliang is a climate resilience consultant with over half a decade of experience and specialises in flood risk advisory for Asia. His work involves advising governments and development banks on strategies to transform climate risks into resilience. He also founded “The Climatebender” a non-profit organisation that provides humanitarian relief to communities vulnerable to the climate crisis.

References:

https://www.pub.gov.sg/Documents/Digitalising-Water-Sharing-Singapores-Experience.pdf

https://iwa-network.org/programs/digital-water/

https://events.development.asia/system/files/materials/2020/11/202011-smart-water-management-singapore-experience.pdf

LET'S CONNECT!