NetCreate: the Future of Wastewater Planning

The manual planning of new wastewater networks is an inefficient, time-consuming activity, requiring extensive data collection for engineers to define pipe layouts against standard specifications. It is a labor-intensive repetitive process that can take years to complete. When faced with this challenge in 150 catchments as part of the Medina and Tabuk Master Plan in Saudi Arabia, it needed a digital solution to determine the future wastewater needs to serve a population of 4.8M by 2050. In addition, given that accurate client data would be limited alternative datasets would be required. The solution developed was NetCreate, an innovative digital process using global opensource GIS datasets to automatically create outline wastewater networks on a repeatable basis. It brings together topographic data (from the Japanese Space Agency), road layouts (from openstreetmap.org) and population distribution data (from Meta (formerly Facebook) Data for Good), to assign the shortest route from each property along defined roads to the lowest point in the catchment where the wastewater treatment works will be typically sited. Pipe sizes are assigned based on the number of customers; manholes are inserted at junctions and at defined intervals on straight pipes; cover levels are taken from topographic data; minimum gradients and pipe depths are based on good engineering practice. A standardized approach makes it repeatable throughout countries or across regions, and configurable to specific client needs. The output from NetCreate can then be integrated into hydraulic modelling software, such as InfoWorks ICM, for the refinement of the design. A Top 10 Finalist in the Global Infrastructure Hub's InfraChallenge Competition in 2020, NetCreate was initially deployed on four cities in the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam with populations of up to 345,000 for the Asian Development Bank. Each application showcased how NetCreate could easily be used for scenario testing, by comparing centralized and decentralized treatment options, or by assessing gravity systems against pumped networks, and then quickly generating principal quantities for scheme costing and comparison. Applying appropriate factors allowed energy use and carbon emissions to be assessed and incorporated into the evaluation process. On completion of our work with the Asian Development Bank, our client commented: 'Your work on Pontianak provided a clear example of where we had a traditional engineering company coming in with an army of engineers to design a sewer system over a period of over 2 years, while you guys came in with NetCreate and delivered almost the same within a month.' We have recently used NetCreate on a 55km2 luxury development in Saudi Arabia for the concept planning of wastewater networks (together with potable water and treated sewage effluent using a similar approach). Initial runs of NetCreate utilised opensource data and general client data, then as more accurate development layouts, population estimates, and topographical data became available, the wastewater layout was refined. At the client's request various layout options were tested in days rather than weeks and budget estimates prepared for comparison purposes. Finally, the outine wastewater layout, was imported InfoWorks ICM to check pipe diameters and rationalise the wastewater pumping stations. Having trialled NetCreate on an east coast US city, we are now applying it to a Wastewater Master Plan in Texas to define the wastewater network layout for the removal of 1,490 properties from septic tanks serving an estimated population of approximately 5,000. A wealth of local client datasets is allowing constraint mapping by considering major utilities, wetlands / floodplains and easements. NetCreate is a unique solution which disrupts the traditional manual approach to the planning of wastewater network infrastructure by processing global open-source GIS datasets, or client data, through a digital platform. While developed for international master planning projects, NetCreate has also been proven to deliver significant time and cost benefits on smaller developments by harnessing available GIS datasets ensuring a consistent output configured to local specifications. Being a digital solution and removing the need for costly and time-consuming bulk data collection, NetCreate can help accelerate the outline planning of schemes and the early realization of benefits to public health and the environment. And been a digital process can help with the global skills shortage, by taking the 'heavy lifting' out of wastewater network planning. Through a series of examples, the presentation will demonstrate how NetCreate has been used for a variety of clients to significantly reduce the time needed for wastewater network planning compared with the traditional, manual approach.