Safeswim takes another international award

In winning the Smart Water Project of the Year, the judges praised the programmes smart analytics in understanding the city’s complex wastewater network, stormwater drainage systems and the natural environment to forecast water quality across the city’s beaches.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said he was pleased but not surprised that Safeswim had won the Smart Water Project of the Year Award. “Auckland Council’s Safeswim is an innovative, world-class programme that has led the way on how to monitor water quality and keep the public informed”.

Safeswim was developed for Auckland Council in New Zealand as a smart solution to predict water quality and provides residents with transparent and accurate real-time information on the quality of water at the city’s main beaches. It uses analytics to understand the complex behaviour of the city’s wastewater network, storm drainage systems and the natural environment to forecast water quality across more than 100 local beaches. The information is freely provided to the public online and via a free app.

Delivering this smart solution meant addressing numerous challenges, including managing more than 8bn data points every day. Mott MacDonald was appointed to integrate all the information into one common digital environment. The development of a large-scale, predictive digital twin, which would bridge the physical and virtual world and enable interaction between atmospheric conditions, the wastewater/stormwater network and the marine environment, was revolutionary, combining everything into a single, real-time environment for the first time.

The initiative is powered by Mott MacDonald’s digital solutions platform Moata, which hosts a range of solutions and uses the power of data to solve today's most pressing infrastructure problems. Moata facilitates the assimilation of end-to-end digital twins, as demonstrated by Safeswim, from rain clouds to receiving water.

Project director Steve Couper said, “Safeswim is a great example of how engineering expertise and digital technology can combine to achieve improved environmental and social outcomes.”

Safeswim programme manager at Auckland Council, Nick Vigar said, “Safeswim is a great tool and an example of effective collaboration and innovation to produce a world-class product.”