Registration Opens for Water Sector’s ‘Big Data’ Conference

‘Big Data’ and the ‘Internet of Things’ are starting to affect every industry, and the water sector is no exception. The forthcoming International Water Association (IWA) Conference, entitled: ‘New Developments in IT & Water,’ will therefore provide an update on how data collection and processing is affecting the management of water and wastewater, and how it will develop in the future.

The IWA Conference will run alongside WWEM 2016 in Telford (UK) 2-3^rd November 2016, and registration for both events is now open.

With high profile speakers from 14 different countries, the IWA Conference will be a truly international event, attracting delegates from around the world. “IT has been a key factor in the development of the modern Water Industry and still offers exciting opportunities for the future,” says Oliver Grievson from Anglian Water, a member of the IWA Scientific Committee. “The nature of IT infrastructure is changing, and opportunities are being created in the drive for better environmental performance whilst lowering costs, becoming more sustainable and mitigating risk.

“As technological developments enable the collection of vast amounts of accurate, reliable data, the key challenges are to understand which data is important and to find ways to exploit the value in the data. Delegates will be provided with an insight into the sensors, controllers, dataloggers, telemetry, software and web-enabled control systems that make it all possible, and many of the speakers will explain how to optimise the value of the data.

“The concept of a ’smarter’ Water Industry will be addressed through discussions on the value of Smart Systems, Network Protocols, Modelling & Control, and Decision Support Systems.”

Fellow organiser Marcus Pattison believes that the IWA Conference is particularly well timed: “The Water Industry is a significant consumer of IT systems and a large producer of data, but it has infamously suffered from ‘Data Richness and Information Poverty,’ producing millions of pieces of data every day, and struggling to extract the value. However, the industry is changing rapidly and pressure is building from a number of directions: population growth is driving a need for greater efficiency; environmental and product quality requirements are becoming tighter and there is a constant desire to lower costs. As a result, the water sector needs to be ‘smarter’ in the way that it operates, with process and network monitoring systems working in tandem with modelling, communications and control technologies that are fast, intelligent and secure.”

WWEM 2016, the co-located international Water, Wastewater and Environmental Monitoring conference and exhibition, will focus on all aspects of testing and monitoring, providing an update on the techniques, technologies, methods, standards and regulatory requirements that relate to monitoring both on-site and in the laboratory; covering sampling, field analysis, gas detection and continuous water and wastewater monitoring applications.

Both WWEM and IWA visitors will benefit from free access to the WWEM Exhibition which will feature almost all of the world’s leading providers of water testing and monitoring equipment products and services, in addition to regulators, standards authorities and academia.