Tag Archives: Remote Monitoring

FlowWorks Creates Big Buzz at WEFTEC 2011

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WEFTEC 2011, Los Angeles

Attendees at the 2011 Water Environment Federation’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC, repeatedly asked a key question as they stopped by the FlowWorks booth: How do I sign up?

“Hundreds of people stopped by the booth,” said FlowWorks President Timothy Hicks. “People are definitely getting the message that FlowWorks is the better way to manage data.”

Held October 15-19 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, WEFTEC is the largest meeting of its kind in North America, bringing together thousands of water quality professionals from around the world to share and explore the best water quality education and training available.

FlowWorks booth was a highlight. Representatives from the nation’s biggest engineering companies, a dozen major west cost municipalities, most of the world’s flow metering firms, as well as the members of the media and investment bankers, were among those who crowded around the booth’s two demonstration screens.

“FACE and the new graphic editor were extremely well received,” Hicks noted. “I think folks were so receptive because they’re starting to understand that a platform like FlowWorks can truly bring data and people together.  After two years of speaking and educating, they are seeing a way to keep their data secure, and access and work with it at the same time.  Fortunately, they’re thinking of us.”

In other words, people are finally understanding how to deal with the vast amount of environmental monitoring data that’s piling up, and that FlowWorks offers a management approach that is far more cost-effective, efficient, and comprehensive than traditional SCADA.

The new tools have been a smash hit so far:

  • Graphic Editing QA/QC Tools—Users can now edit any and all data, on a single, secure web platform, from anywhere.
  • FlowWorks Advanced Calculation Engine (FACE)—A major upgrade to the FlowWorks data platform places Excel-quality calculation tools for real-time data directly into user’s hands.

The updates vastly expand FlowWorks data management, analysis and reporting capabilities.

The message for flow monitoring professionals of the world: FlowWorks has arrived—and 2012 looks like it is going to be a very busy year.

For more information on FlowWorks, including the new Graphic Editing QA/QC Tools or FACE, please click the links.

FlowWorks Welcomes FTS as a New Data Partner

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FlowWorks is pleased to announce that users can now connect directly to Axiom™ data loggers made by FTS.  Often used for hydrology, and a prominent in North American fire weather station networks where extreme duty is required, the touch-screen enabled Axiom loggers are well known for their rugged reliability and simplicity of operation. Users of FTS loggers can now access their data directly through FlowWorks using either GOES or Globalstar satellite telemetry.  For the first time, users of this respected logger can access all the power of FlowWorks.

As an example, combining data from FTS Axiom data loggers with the extreme power of FACE, FlowWorks Advanced Calculation Engine, allows users to perform real-time calculations on any incoming data stream. The possibilities are nearly limitless, ranging from combining data at multiple locations into a single algebraic or logic equation, to writing complex alarming rules spanning entire networks.  In addition, because FlowWorks is hardware-neutral, data from FTS equipment can easily be combined with data from any other data logger, SCADA system and USGS or NOAA station.

FlowWorks combines powerful graphing tools with robust analysis capabilities including I&I, rainfall IDF, CSO monitoring with multi-station alarming, and storage for all forms of metadata. The addition of FTS data allows FlowWorks clients the option to combine it with other monitoring data for a dramatically improved understanding of local conditions and how they affect water and sewer networks.

You can learn more about FlowWorks and our partnership with FTS here.

Quantifying I&I with FlowWorks

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If you are responsible for operating a sanitary sewer system, you know tracking Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) is crucial. However, even with the best data this can be a challenging and sometimes tedious task without the tools to extract useful information from it. This is where FlowWorks comes in.

You have stations monitoring sewers and rainfall all over the city. The challenge for planners and engineers is to use this data to predict I&I in order to implement the required facilities or assess the results of infrastructure rehabilitation. To do this, a host of data is considered and some complex and often tedious calculations are undertaken. The versatile I&I tools in FlowWorks simplify many of the tasks required in I&I analysis, preventing errors and making the task actually tolerable (we won’t go so far as to say enjoyable!)  For those of us who used to do all of this in Excel spreadsheets, the first time you see FlowWorks do in seconds what used to take hours can be very exciting!. The program has already helped municipalities and consultants avoid potential overflows and resulting fines, which can come at a high cost to both the local environment and community.

For each storm event, FlowWorks takes into account Ground Water Infiltration (GWI) and Base Sanitary Flow (BSF), collectively known as Dry Weather Flow (DWF), and subtracts it from the total flow in the sanitary sewer to come up with Rainfall Induced I&I (RDII). This may not sound like a lot of effort, but when it has to be done manually across many stations and storm events it can easily add up to many hours of grueling, error-prone calculations.

Once you’ve accumulated an adequate number of storm events, FlowWorks will quickly handle plotting of an I&I envelope or the Q vs I relationship, giving you the relationship between I&I and rainfall so that return-period based I&I flows can be estimated.

All I&I analysis data can be saved for later reference or comparison and can be published for any audience, public or private. For those who have multiple monitoring sites, a seasonal set up, which includes dates of storms, dry weather patterns, etc., can be easily transferred between sites to avoid the hassles of setting up multiple sites.

If you haven’t tried out the I&I tools yet on some of your data, we encourage you to give it a try (use of the I&I tools is included in your subscription).

FlowWorks Now Links Directly to USGS & NOAA Data

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FlowWorks can now accept real-time data directly from United States Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring stations.

For the first time ever, utilities, municipalities, and industrial clients can access this valuable data directly through FlowWorks to enhance understanding of their regional environment.

The addition of the USGS and NOAA data means over 2,500 precipitation stations, 9,000 stream flow stations, 1,300 groundwater level stations and 1,900 surface water quality stations and nearly 50 tide stations are now available to FlowWorks clients in real time.

Clients can use the new data to augment local networks, or simply as a means of cross-checking local monitoring results.  For example, enhancing an existing rain gauge network with local USGS rainfall stations will increase spatial and temporal storm information and improve correlation with observations on the ground.  FlowWorks stores all data in a single massive database so it can be analyzed quickly, understood and the results communicated to all users.  It’s now just keystrokes away and the benefits are impressive.

You can read more about using FlowWorks with USGS and NOAA data here.

FlowWorks: A True One-Stop Monitoring Shop

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Flow monitoring must be efficient in order to truly be effective. With that in mind, FlowWorks continues to promote the ease of accessing all data sources in one location. We now have the ability to add real-time United States Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) station data into our already- robust flow monitoring network.

The additional data is comprehensive:

  • Precipitation
  • Groundwater level
  • Streamflow
  • Surface water quality
  • Tide data

The upgrades bring more than 2,500 USGS precipitation stations, 9,000 streamflow stations, 1,300 groundwater level stations and 1,900 surface water quality stations to FlowWorks users. And, NOAA allows access to almost 50 real-time tide data streams. It’s all just keystrokes away. For a list of available stations in your area click here for USGS and here for NOAA.

This real-time data is typically recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every one to four hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events. Plus, data from real-time sites are relayed to USGS offices via satellite, telephone, and/or radio telemetry and are available for viewing within minutes of arrival.

The benefits are impressive. In essence, FlowWorks analysis and reporting tools enable more useful information to be captured from the USGS stations. For example, clients are able to enhance their existing rain gauge network with all available stations in their monitoring area, which increases access to spatial and temporal storm information.

Gwinnett County in Georgia is using this service to bring the 18 local USGS rainfall stations into their FlowWorks platform in addition to the 12 rainfall stations coming in from their SCADA system.  The result will be a dramatic improvement in their understanding of local rainfall conditions.

Implementing these new features—additional data—from FlowWorks requires just a small one-time setup fee and no monthly charges. More importantly, accessing all your data in one spot, and in real time, will improve the decision-making process perhaps more than any other upgrade a firm could make.

Inflow and Infiltration 101 – Part 3

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This is part 3 of Mike Homenuke’s series on Inflow and Infiltration. For part 1 click here and part 2 click here.

Why care about I&I?

 Before we get too much further into this, we should probably discuss why we should even care about inflow and infiltration into our sanitary sewers. Whether you’re an engineer or an urban planner, inflow and infiltration (I&I)—surface runoff and groundwater that has entered the sanitary sewer system—should be on your radar.

 Sanitary sewer systems are designed to carry a specific volume of wastewater, usually from systems including toilets and sinks in homes and businesses. Meanwhile, stormwater sewers are designed to carry rainwater and groundwater away. However, when this water flows into sanitary sewers, it taxes the load on the overall system, including wastewater treatment plants.

 The result—public health risk and extra costs to your community. And if that doesn’t get your attention, consider that sanitary sewer overflows can kill fish and will violate state and federal environmental regulations.

 

Extra Load and Dangerous Consequences

Wet weather and storm events can quickly fill sanitary sewer systems beyond capacity. At that point, wastewater flows at higher-than-usual water levels and can begin to flood basements and homes and spill onto streets. These wastewaters and potential pathogens are a significant public health risk. And, as these flows mix into water bodies like streams and lakes, contamination becomes a major issue for all those interconnected waterways—harming the flora and fauna that reside there and can prompt officials to issue beach advisories and closures.

 EPA regulations 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires regulated agencies possessing a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to stop all wastewater overflows from reaching United States waters. It’s a daunting and nearly impossible task because I&I can’t be stopped altogether, and will continue to increase over time as the infrastructure ages. Since the late 1980s public awareness and interest has grown in upgrading sanitary sewer infrastructure and municipalities are continuing to respond.

Costs can be high when it comes to dealing with I&I, and encompass fees associated with overflows, wastewater treatment and transportation facilities and funding opportunities. Also bear in mind that sewer backups that spill water into households can result in litigation for which the city or local agency may be responsible.

The best thing municipalities can do is to understand the I&I within their systems, and determine if larger responses could result in a problem.  I&I events are based on climatic events and as such their return periods can be calculated.  A return period I&I response that causes a sewer backup or overflow can be calculated for every pipe in a city. If the return period is less than the expected service level promised to the rate payers or results in an overflow that harms the aquatic environment, action is required.  Since I&I increases with sewer age, it’s important for utilities to understand the current response and calculate the corresponding return period.  Information such as this helps to avoid overflows and resulting fines—and starts with effective monitoring tools.

 Stay tuned for our next blog about how to quantify I&I and how FlowWorks can help.