Utilizing New Technologies to Protect Old Assets

Sewer assets are by necessity often located near streams; therefore, an understanding of the long term migration and meandering of a stream, as well as hydrologic and hydraulics of the stream, is critical in developing strategies to protect such assets. To this end, Black and Veatch developed a tool that utilizes GIS and satellite imagery along with field investigations to project the movement of a stream and its potential impacts on adjacent sewer assets. This tool will allow utility owners to take proactive action to address the instability issues of sewer assets located in the influence zone of a stream before the threat of failure or an SSO event.