Shaping the next generation of coastal water intelligence

Public attention on coastal water quality has never been higher.

Recent media coverage, including Channel 4’s Dirty Business, highlights just how much scrutiny the sector is under and how important transparency and trust are.

Against this backdrop, progress on our world-first Smart Skies, Healthy Waters programme is moving quickly as we develop a new way of understanding and protecting our coastal waters.

Delivered in collaboration with NWG (Northumbrian Water Group), South West Water, Southern Water and United Utilities, the £7m Ofwat-funded project has now moved firmly into the design phase, where the system we have been developing is beginning to take shape.

Here is a quick look at the progress so far and what comes next.

A new approach to coastal water intelligence

At its core, Smart Skies, Healthy Waters is about giving water companies a clearer picture than ever before of what is happening in coastal waters.

Together with our partners, we are combining automated drones, real-time sensors, robotics and rapid shore-side testing into one connected system.

By monitoring coastal waters continuously and at scale, we can build a far richer picture of changing conditions than is possible with current methods.

The data we collect will feed both our real-time reporting and predictive water intelligence, helping operators identify emerging risks earlier and respond faster.

So what has happened since our last update?

Over the past few months the programme has reached several important milestones as we move from concept into system design.

Patent filed for a key component

Last month we reached a key technical milestone with the filing of a patent for a component of the solution.

This marks an important step forward and reinforces our commitment to innovation and creating a new way forward for water quality monitoring.

Bringing the system together

In January we brought partners from across the consortium together for the programme’s Concept Design Review.

The day brought together engineers, researchers, water companies and technology specialists involved in the project.

For the first time, many of the solution components were demonstrated side by side.

Seeing the robotics systems, sensing technologies and sampling approaches together helped bring the vision to life and highlighted the strength of a cross sector approach to the challenge.

Rapid micro testing

We have also been looking at how to incorporate rapid microbiology testing within the overall system. This would support the programme’s shore side capability from within our “lab in a box”.

If we combine this data with real time insights and laboratory analysis, it creates a triadic approach for a more complete and balanced view of water quality.

How it all comes together: the “lab in a box”

At the heart of the system is what we call the lab in a box – and it is exactly what it sounds like!

This containerised testing facility is where several elements of the programme will come together, stationed in key coastal locations for shore-side testing.

It enables three forms of monitoring:

• Real time environmental data streamed to the cloud
• Drone enabled grab sampling for rapid micro testing
• Sample handover for UKAS lab analysis carried out by our robotics system for aseptic handling

You can see our future vision for how this will look in practice below, including a station for public facing communications, making water quality data available to all.

The entire process is designed around traceability and trusted handling, helping ensure strong compliance and confidence in the data produced.

Joined-up water intelligence

To act earlier and with greater confidence, water companies need better visibility of what is happening in coastal waters, both now and next.

That is why, as part of the programme, we are developing our predictive water intelligence platform with Microsoft .

The platform brings together all of the data collected across the system and uses AI to build a clearer picture over time. It learns how different conditions interact and helps identify the patterns that can lead to poor water quality.

This allows operators to move from reactive responses to more proactive, data-led decisions, supporting better outcomes for water quality.

It enables:

• Real-time reporting, showing what is happening now
• Predictive insight, helping understand what is likely to happen next

What comes next

With concept design complete, the programme has now moved into functional design.

Over the coming months we will refine our designs, complete site visits and prepare more demonstrations of key technologies.

We are proud to be developing this with Northumbrian Water Group, Skyports Drone Services, Proteus Instruments, Tharsus and Newcastle University.

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