Knowledge Leadership Report 2014

Q2

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Focus on Project Teamsites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Focus on Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Focus on Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Focus on Knowledge Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Focus on Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Focus on R&D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Introduction

Sarah Grimwood EA Knowledge Manager

I was talking to Ian Davies a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing the state of KM in MWH and we decided that it was generally OK – not broken and therefore not a focus for a fix.

But that doesn’t really sound good enough to me. Knowledge capture, sharing and reuse are all vital for our business, helping us to deliver exceptional service to our clients and minimising the risks of reinventing the wheel and/or re-work.

So how can we make sure that we don’t start every project from scratch?

How do we ensure that we use our integrated global workforce to get the right person on the right job?

And how do we encourage people to use our communities to share stuff rather than just asking questions when they are stuck?

There aren’t any easy answers, but in this issue of the KL Report I want to highlight some stories that show how KM initiatives have made a difference to our projects, delivered our objectives and hopefully made life just that little bit easier.

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Focus on Project Teamsites

The Project Teamsite template was launched at the end of January to improve our document management and to make it easier to find information on past projects (through the Project Portal). Since it was only being implemented on new projects it has had a bit of a slow start but the numbers are gradually picking up and we now have going on for 100 project teamsites that are being actively used for project documentation.

I have recently had the opportunity to talk to both the PMs and PTLs about the use of the Project Teamsites and, as understanding grows of the potential benefits, we are seeing much more enthusiasm and suggestions for how the sites can be improved.

One particular group, the Wastewater Networks Modelling team working on the Thames Water DIA Programme, have really taken their Teamsite into the heart of their project to help them to manage their project and to improve efficiency.

The AMP5 Lot 19 Programme comprises a large number of fixed price, desktop-based studies that include an assessment of the impact of connecting flows from proposed Greenfield and Brownfield developments to an existing sewerage network. Model updates and simulations are completed to understand the existing performance of the sewerage network, and to quantify the impact of connecting the additional flows in terms of predicted surcharge and flooding. Should a proposed connection cause detriment to the level of service provided by the existing network during extreme events, network infrastructure improvement options are developed and reported on.

As Graham Moralee said in his Beacon Award submission:“Knowledge transfer has been key to these projects. I was seconded to Pune for more than two years. We had weekly team meetings and knowledge sharing sessions each week using Lync where an ongoing or recently completed study would be discussed, and team members share knowledge gained and/or lessons learned.

“However, it was the relatively recent introduction of the new Project Teamsites that has enabled a step change in the project. By using the SharePoint team site, and customising the template so that it is specific to the requirements of the DIA team, we have been able to efficiently deliver studies for our Client. The team site has been developed in such a way that promotes effective management of documents, transparency of project financials and programme information and the effective use of planning tools.

“One of the most valuable features of our team site is the ability for any member of the team to easily view the current, up to date, project financial and programme information. Placing the information on the team site, rather than burying the information within project folders, means team members can easily view and assess a project’s progress and performance against planned targets. This allows a team member to take pre-emptive actions when a project is sliding away from the planned programme, or when the budget is being spent quicker than planned. We think that this transparency has helped to improve productivity, as team members having access to the (almost) live financial information inspires efficient working.

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“Before the introduction of the SharePoint team sites to the programme of work, the studies were averaging at between 10% and 20% profit margin for MWH. Currently, the average profit margin on our studies is in the region of 40%. Though there is an inevitable variability in the profit margins seen in the studies, we have definitely witnessed an improvement in performance since the introduction of the Teamsite and the associated improved visibility it provides of technical templates, methodologies, project progress and financial performance.”

“Placing the information on the team site, rather than burying the information within project folders, means team members can easily view and assess a project’s progress and performance against planned targets.”Graham Moralee

For more information contact your local Project Teamsite Champion

BELFAST JANE GILVARY

CARDIFF SARAH KELLY

CRAWLEY NEIL ELLIOT

EDINBURGH ARNOLD BIJLSMA

HIGH WYCOMBE REBECCA CLARKE

LONGBRIDGE NEIL SCRIVENS AND PATRICIA SNOOK

NEWCASTLE DAVID CALDER

WAKEFIELD DAVID HOLT

WARRINGTON SARAH MORRIS

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Focus on Lessons Learned

Learning lessons from the projects we undertake, and passing those lessons on to future projects, is an important part of the way we work. Ensuring that we don’t make the same mistakes over again, and that we re-apply the clever tricks that we develop, is what makes us more efficient and helps us to deliver our projects on time and within budget. So how exactly do we learn these lessons and make sure that they are shared across the business?

The Henley Forum for Organisational Learning and Knowledge Strategies is running a research project on Improving the Use of Lessons Learnt (LL) and I asked Becky Clarke to get involved. The aim is to develop some form of guidance that highlights good practice in managing the whole cycle of moving lessons from

the originators, who experienced the lesson learnt, through appropriate diffusion/dissemination to others within discipline/ in different disciplines and in the wider organisation. This needs to be done in a way that can be absorbed easily and which can demonstrate impact on performance. Other companies represented in the research included UU, Roche, DEFRA, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.

The first part of the project was to prepare some stories about how lessons are learnt in each of the participating organisations so that the Henley academics can collate this information and develop best practice guidance.

Becky asked TDLs and KCLs for examples of LL on their projects, how the information was collected and if it has ever been re-used. A large amount of feedback was received and it demonstrated that LL are being collected on projects but the information is stored in a variety of locations and the dissemination of this information is inconsistent – sometimes it is done within a discipline, but not often across disciplines.

Initial general observations are that there are many different types of LL collected within the organisation but they are stored in different locations and they are generated for different purposes. Whether LL are generated or not depends on the lead of the project (PM and/or technical lead) or on an office lead and different clients may also drive the production of LL. In most cases, little is done around codification and abstraction of LL and often they are difficult to find.

Some of the methods of collecting LLs in MWH are detailed here:

Our Project Delivery System/EA Technical Delivery Workflow states that each project should carry out a project de-brief/LL review before closure of the project. However, these are rarely completed because they are not a mandatory requirement. Even if they are completed, they are stored in each project’s filing system and, therefore, archived at the end of the project. The use of the Project Teamsite and the Project Portal should improve this.

PURSUIT PLANNING EXECUTION CLOSE OUT

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A Knowledge Reuse Success Story documents a situation where one individual or team provides knowledge that others apply to a task, project or program. The knowledge transferred is deemed to be above and beyond “normal” work processes. The stories are collated on a KNet site and are generally stored as successes, rather than lessons learnt.

Insight Notes are also intended to capture LL on projects and suggest future applications of the insights gained. Again, these are held on a KNet site.

A number of Disciplines and Knowledge Communities collect their own LL and store them within their own KNet sites. These LL tend to be much more technically focussed and remain within the Discipline or Knowledge Community.

Some offices were found to be quite proactive at collating LL on an office by office basis with Newcastle holding a LL forum once a month over lunchtime, with pizzas provided. These LL are collated in a spreadsheet. Warrington works very closely with UU and uses UU’s procedures and templates for capturing LL at the handover and closeout phase of a project. UU keep a LL Database and perform analysis on the data. LL Communications (particularly LL safety briefings) are sent out at regular intervals and in a variety of ways including emails.

The internal MWH Breckenridge Conference is a global knowledge sharing event featuring presentations and leadership keynotes, with representation from our worldwide operations. The conference is an opportunity for sharing and expanding knowledge of new applications and technologies and this conference is an opportunity to share LL. Each presentation is recorded and saved on KNet, so that anyone with access to KNet can see the presentations, even if they don’t attend.

EA Design carries out Technical Maturity Assessments for each discipline in each location, each year. From these, the discipline leads are able to identify LL and define actions to improve project delivery.

Other ways of collating and sharing LL include Lunchtime Lync-ups and local team meetings – e.g. the WWN team in High Wycombe meet briefly every morning at 9.30 to discuss their work for the naturally sharing LL on a daily basis with each other.

In the next KL report I will provide stories that highlight these different techniques and an update on the Henley Project, with some thoughts as to how we will implement the key findings.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle - Kahlil Gibran

Breckenridge ConferenceMWH Learning and Meeting Center in Broomfield

15 - 17 September

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Focus on Awards

Awards help us to highlight some of the excellent work we do in MWH. By looking at all the entries we can often pick up on ideas that we could incorporate in our projects or suggest to our clients.

Breckenridge Awards21 nominations were received for the 2014 Beacon and Herald Awards which are presented each year at the Breckenridge Conference, recognising projects and teams that illustrate knowledge sharing and knowledge

innovation in practice. Click on this link to read how every story provides a great example of how the problems our clients face can be unlocked by turning to the MWH global community.

And the Winners are…

The Beacon Award, which recognizes teams that demonstrate excellence in knowledge transfer, will be awarded to the Boeing SSFL stormwater and Cerro Corona teams (submitted by Arturo Burbano, US and Juan Diaz-Carreras, Peru). The Boeing team created a framework for stormwater treatment, which was then reapplied on the Cerro Corona project, as well as on other programs in

California and Peru. This demonstrates the full lifecycle of knowledge capture and reuse: applying global working approaches to reuse existing expertise opened new market opportunities of over

$4M in fees and provided development opportunities for staff.

The Herald Award, which recognizes knowledge innovation and IP creation, will be awarded to the MyPLANT team (submitted by Ajay Nair, UK). MWH have developed the world’s first real time Data Analytics tool to support our clients’ need to identify and sustain operating cost savings and achieve greater levels of performance efficiency. Working with the visualisation team in Pune, the IP developed for one project was used to win 4 schemes in the UK (£2 million in fees), and the approach is now being extended to other regions.

Other EA submissions:BeaconThames Water DIA – Submitted by Graham Moralee – see story on Page 4EA Lunchtime Lync-Ups – Submitted by Emma Lougheed – see story on Page 12Global Climate Change Alliance – Submitted by Mark Futter – covered in the 2013 Q2 KL Report

HeraldMinworth Lagoons stability assessment – Submitted by Carrie Rose – covered in the 2013 Q3 KL Report3D Model Checking – submitted by Andrew Collett – see story on Page 10TurSEFF – submitted by Emre Oguzoncul

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Presidents AwardsKnowledge sharing and reuse also played an important part for the winners of the 2013 MWH President’s Awards which recognise exemplary performance throughout the year. Full details of the award ceremony are on KNet and the winners were…

Two Management Awards were presented:The Northumbrian Water Team (Sarah Davies, Ben Clark, Peter Dibben, Paul Flood and Nigel Reed) used learning from the Thames Water Optimise programme to embed significant savings within NWL’s delivery system and helped us to win additional work.

The 4D Programme Team was recognized for producing consistently cost effective designs embracing innovative solutions, catchment consenting approaches, efficient scoping and excellent technical governance.

Three Technical/Quality Awards were presented:Christy White, Chris Barker, Rob McTaggart and Peter Loughran (from New Zealand) were recognised for their work on wastewater and stormwater disinfection (which was reported in the Q3 2013 KL Report).

Gaye McKay, Neil McLean, Chris McLarnon and Robin Grenfell delivered one of the first Surface Water Management Plans to be completed for Glasgow city centre enhancing MWH’s reputation in flood risk and sustainable drainage.

An Eight20 Alliance team undertook a strongly praised, comprehensive review of the Thames Water Business Plan, valued at £2.275bn. All four discipline technical leads were all from MWH - Narinder Sunner (WWNI), Robert McTaggart (WWI), Jolyon La Trobe-Bateman (WNI) and Michael Morrisroe (WI).

Three Marketing Awards were presented:The Seafield THP Bid Team, an integrated EA Design, UK ETS Operations and MWHT showed that it is possible to successfully transfer our industry leading consultancy expertise into winning design and build solutions in a highly competitive environment.

Arthur Menzies and the Severn Trent Water Team maintained the No.1 position in the client’s KPI rankings enabling us to secure a major AMP6 win on the Severn Trent Water Engineering Consultancy Framework with a possible contract extension into AMP7. In addition, Paul Flood and Matt Bingham helped us to secure further work on the Birmingham Resilience project.

Geoff Chapman, Peter Dibben and Phil McEnroe successfully turned around the financial performance on the Yorkshire Water account and as a result we won the extension of the Yorkshire Water Technical Consultancy contract through AMP6.

The Support Award went to the UK Marketing Services Team which has been involved in every AMP*6 bid, across MWH UK and MWH Treatment. The team, led by Graham Dickinson, comprises of Paul Cusack, Lindsey Chalmers, Anthony Hughes, Caroline Downie, Andrea Eliades, Andrew Murphy and Rachel Connolly.

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For the second time in 2 years, MWH has been recognized as a Best Practice Partner by APQC, an external benchmarking organization that studies business practices, including knowledge management. Two years ago, our recognition was centered on the topic of “putting knowledge into the flow of every day work”, and this year the topic is on “user centric content management”.

To earn this recognition, we completed an online survey and then a phone interview, discussing our content management practices and a few success stories about how we deliver content to people in the organization. The topics that especially impressed the judging panel included our usability focused intranet redesign, mTOOLS to bring content to field workers on mobile devices, the technical library to help designers find the tools they need, and project team sites to embed PM tools in the place where project teams are working.

Christie Dowling gave a 3-4 hour presentation to the other best practice partners (AT&T, EY, Nalco, and Wipro Ltd.) to highlight these success stories as well as our overall content management philosophy. In addition, we have the opportunity to attend presentations from the other 4 best practice partners. We will receive our award at an APQC event later this year, which will summarize the learnings from the 5 best practice partners in a 3-day conference.

As Andy Collett says in his Herald Award submission, the introduction of BIM and the use of 3D modelling are changing our industry and the way we work. This presents challenges to the long established 2D ways of working as we change to working in a new 3D modelled environment. MWH engineers working on the Woolston project for Southern Water have developed a tool and process to check and verify 3D models within the model environment, drastically reducing the time it takes to check models, reducing drawing costs, and improving the quality of checks and propelling MWH to the forefront of BIM in the water industry.

Working within the 3D environment, engineers are able to actually explore, develop and refine the design before the production of final drawings. Drawings are produced once and are right first time. There is no need to produce/amend/reproduce drawings and so this feature alone provides a considerable time and cost efficiency.

As well as providing the same flexibility as a conventional 2D checking procedure the checking tool facilitates collaboration within the model and provides a clear and auditable record for governance. It enables improved contextual understanding and therefore ultimately better design and less rework. The creation of this checking tool is a significant milestone for MWH as we seek to transition into a BIM service delivery company. Essentially the process creates time to engineer and add intelligence to our design, which adds value for our clients whilst reducing drawing production costs. The tool can be used around the world and could be further developed. The ultimate goal will be to not produce drawings at all for construction. Construction teams will be able to decide on their own drawings that can be automatically produced by themselves from the tool.

We are aware of no other companies that are able to check 3D models and so this tool provides a huge advantage to MWH projects and provides demonstrable evidence that we are at the forefront of BIM in the water industry.

Focus on Knowledge Sharing

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When Alec Erskine sent me details of his recent paper for this report he added: P.S. is my blog “Data and Decisions” a success story? I’m told people read it a bit… As someone who posts a blog every now and again, I can completely sympathise with his uncertainty as to how it is being received. Hopefully they are read by a few people and if we are lucky we get some comments, but how do we know that we are getting our message across? As far as Alex’s blog is concerned, it’s the one I quote most often when I’m talking to people – he has a fantastic ability to explain really complicated subjects in a way that makes sense to people – and it’s almost always been read by those I mention it to. Indeed his recent post on “Why do Procurement think they are being fair when they’re not?” was even discussed in the last EA Design management team meeting. So if you like a blog - do leave a comment!

Following the PTL course held recently (which I ran a session at), Dan Causley was interested in finding out what our current Knowledge Sharing status is for the MEICA and Hydraulics teams in the North West. He conducted a simple survey to benchmark current thoughts and to gauge how we can improve. Dan sent me a copy of the responses (with no names). There are ongoing issues with IT (particularly for seconded staff working in Lingley Mere), and confusion as to which system to use, but overall I was very pleased with the feedback:

I was really encouraged to see the prominence of Knowledge Communities in the comments and it’s great to see how many people think Lync is almost as good as face to face contact.

Several people mentioned confusion between the use of discussion forums vs Yammer. We are moving to Yammer directly as a result of the issues with the multiple emails sent from the existing KC Discussion Forums. I know that the roll-out hasn’t been ideal but as we migrate the Knowledge Communities onto SP2010 and embed Yammer Groups into them in place of the Discussion Forums, hopefully this will clarify things. This post contains some useful information and there is also a Yammer 101 Group specifically for Yammer!

A few people also suggested expanding the discussion forums/Yammer to include sharing knowledge as well as asking questions. We have been trying to promote this for a while and there are some good examples of where this is happening (most particularly in Yammer).

The Project Portal is intended to help us to find details of past projects and who worked on them. Linking with the new Project Teamsites this will start to make a big difference to how we find past project information (as long as we provide the information to populate the systems!).

Lessons Learned is another interesting area and something we could do better (although in some areas we already do it better than we think!). See article on the work Becky Clarke is doing on Page 8.

We are never going to be able to give people an overhead code for knowledge sharing – but there should definitely be time allowed in the project for it. The whole point is that this is important for each and every project, and that it benefits each and every project.

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Sarah Davies contacted me recently to say that one of NWL’s staff had told her that he was pleased to see MWH staff at conferences, especially as others (Amec, Motts and Grontmij) have been absent. He thought this spoke well for our investment in innovation and industry involvement, which just goes to show the wider value of preparing our external presentations too. So here is a round-up of the papers that we have presented/published over the last quarter.

As Emma Lougheed mentioned in her Beacon Award submittal, Lunchtime Lync-Up sessions offer everyone the opportunity to learn from experts and specialists from their desk with presentations hosted by speakers around the globe. Since October 2012 over 1,000 people from 45 offices have attended at least one 30 minute Lunchtime Lync-Up, representing 220 business days of learning at no cost to the business.

The programme continues to bring in very good audiences to hear about projects, developments and initiatives in the business. Recent presentations include:

Gwen said that following her presentation on the Saltburn Bathing Water scheme, she had enquiries for information for both the UU and Southern bids and the work was referenced in both of these AMP6 submissions. She was also asked to attend a client meeting with Southern Water and provided support on their bathing water project. This highlights how valuable it is to share what we are doing because you never know who might be listening and how useful your work may be to them.

Bruce Horton spoke at the CIWEM meeting on Reducing Carbon Emissions in the Water Sector – Incentives and Innovation which was a follow up to the CIWEM Blueprint report published last year. Bruce highlighted that the main driver is cost – saving carbon saves money and that there is a definite shift in emphasis from operational to whole-life carbon. The general consensus was that sufficient incentives are already available to enable water companies (WaSCs at least) to achieve carbon reductions in line with the CC Act, through a combination of decarbonisation of grid electricity, efficiencies and renewables. But there is less knowledge and fewer incentives around Scope 3 emissions and we need to do better to link water and energy.

Focus on Presentations/Publications

Gaye McKay - Water Sensitive Urban DesignSudhir Bhase - CAESAR IIAdriana Reyes Cordona - “STEM” Education Network Gwen Rhodes - Saltburn Bathing Water ImprovementsRuth Clarke - (Innovyze) – ICMLive

Charles Chandler - Estimating drive sizes, power & fuel consumptionRichard Winstanley - Water Trading and a National Water GridIan Armitage - Haweswater Aqueduct refurbishmentChris Barker - “Yes we have - no bananas” (Regulatory changes to “outcomes”)

Emma Lougheed

Gaye McKay

Gwen Rhodes

Richard Winstanley

Ian Armitage

Chris Barker

Bruce Horton

Damon Webster

Charles Chandler

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Bruce also presented at the UK Network of Environmental Economists annual conference, on the ‘Multiple Benefits of SuDS’ project he is doing with Chris Digman and others for CIRIA. The outputs can be found here http://www.eftec.co.uk/2014/envecon-2014. The conference is the annual focal point for those working in environmental economics in the UK and beyond. MWH was one of a small handful of consultants invited to present at a conference which is traditionally dominated by academics and government/non-government institutions, recognition of the importance of our practical work in this area. As a direct result of the presentation, MWH is linking to projects being undertaken by other practitioners, and is building additional data and knowledge into the SuDS benefit valuation tool currently being developed.

Gwen Rhodes attended the Wastewater Infrastructure & Networks conference. The conference was well attended by leaders across the industry with speakers from Thames, UU, Severn Trent, Welsh Water, Yorkshire Water, NWL, the EA, and Defra. The speakers discussed challenges of the future and strategies that include partnership working and sustainable solutions. The presentation done by NWL discussed sustainable drainage projects and showed a project done by MWH as an example to the industry.

British Water, supported by MWH, recently ran a BIM Conference for the Water Industry. The event was well supported with over 130 delegates from across the industry including water companies, designers, contractors and product suppliers. MWH was well represented with Damon Webster and Shaun Stevens giving presentations and John Heighway, Mike Willis, Ian Davies, Mark Townshend and Stephen Kennedy facilitating workshops. There was a strong message that BIM will change the way we deliver and operate our water infrastructure. This will not happen instantly but it is a key component of AMP6 delivery and the efficiency that the water industry has to deliver. We will be expected to work in close collaboration with clients and suppliers to deliver the benefits that the BIM approach offers. Feedback from delegates included “this is a pivotal day for the water industry” and “who is taking the BIM lead in the water sector? It looks like MWH is.”

We are also now part of the BIM4Water group which was set up under the Government BIM Task Group.

Matt Rhodes and Sarah Davies attended an Association for Project Safety evening meeting on the proposed changes to the CDP Regs 2015 and gave a short presentation to our staff working for NWL and ESW to share the highlights.

Chris Digman has presented/published a number of papers reviewing the EA research framework for urban drainage and designing for exceedance including one at the UDG Spring Conference.

Rob McTaggart and Chris McLarnon also spoke at the UDG Spring Conference with their papers on ‘The Portsmouth Flood Alleviation Scheme’ and ‘Glasgow City Centre SWMP’.

John Heighway

Mike Willis

Ian Davies

Stephen Kennedy

Matt Rhodes

Sarah Davies

Chris Digman

Rob McTaggart

Neil McLean

“who is taking the BIM lead in the water sector? It looks like MWH is.”

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Neil McLean has co-written a chapter of a new book Water Resources in the Built Environment: management issues and solutions. His chapter focuses on the Multiple benefits of green infrastructure and includes sustainable drainage, ecosystem services, amenity and biodiversity. Water management is a key environmental issue in controlling floods and reducing droughts and this book provides analysis of the main issues, offering solutions and describing good practice. With interdisciplinary contributions from physical, environmental, social, economic and political scientists, this book provides a unique resource for policy experts, engineers and subject enthusiasts.

Neil has also written a Susdrain Blog on “SuDS in Scotland; Are we there yet?” This compares the legislative reality with the SuDS philosophy and desired outcomes.

Alec Erskine’s paper Using A Negative Binomial Regression Model With A Bayesian Tuner To Estimate Failure Probability For Sewerage Infrastructure, was published in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems 20(1), March 2014. The statistics team in the UK has been developing models of asset failure for many companies and one of our key innovations is the use of “Bayesian tuners”. This technique is an adjustment to a standard failure model that allows us to incorporate information about the individual asset’s performance as well as a generalised model based on age and other attributes – and the balance between the two is calculated statistically. The model tends to get better results than the ordinary “cohort” models often used for pipes and sewers in the industry. This paper, co-written with Yorkshire Water Services staff and internationally renowned Bayesian statistician Tony O’Hagan, is about an application for sewers in Yorkshire now embedded in YWS’s BGASP system.

Malcolm Eddleston has published two papers in the ICE Dams and Reservoirs Journal ‘Application of the Internal Erosion Toolbox to Rochdale Canal Dams. Part 1: Introduction and erosion initiation’ and ‘Part 2: Time for detection of internal erosion’.

Neil Gardner had an academic poster accepted for CIWEM Scotland’s branch biennial symposium on Future Cities – and won first prize. Neil’s poster

documented the principles of our recent Energy and Opex optimisation work with Scottish Water. It discusses how the importance of such work is growing

as the industry places more focus on Totex and achieving carbon emission reduction targets, and how it is essential to help build resilience into existing

asset bases as populations grow and the energy market continues to be subject to uncertainty.

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Focus on Research and Development

MWH has supported a range of Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in the Civil Engineering department at London’s Imperial College for several years with input directed by our visiting Professor, David Balmforth. Most recently Ian Cranshaw, Technical Director for process engineering, has worked with a group of 9 third year MEng students on a 5 week, full-time project to develop a scope and design for the “Waste Water Treatment Plant for the Future”. They had two principal objectives;

1) To minimise the resource requirements (energy and chemical inputs) to achieve the major WW treatment objectives and protect the environment at reasonable cost

2) To maximise the potential recovery of resources from WW and WWT sludges (energy, nutrients, industrial chemicals and products).

Ian gave expert input as the Industrial Collaborator over a six week period attending the weekly “crit” sessions and supporting the process remotely. The outputs were impressive with a unique application of the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) technique combined with a mind mapping. This allowed the students to shortlist 700 possible process train permutations down to just twelve by dropping the wider list of scored unit processes into a finite number of predefined block flow “system” templates as below.

After final scoring the preferred process stream was selected and a flow and mass balance was constructed for this solution. The students were encouraged to innovate and not to be unduly risk averse in their process selection and so the final preferred process train is a radical departure from the tried and tested physical primary treatment and aerobic biological secondary treatment that most of our clients specify and expect!

The principal deviation is the selection of an anaerobic secondary treatment stream with the overall process train comprising: Chemically enhanced vortex separation; Anaerobic expanded granular sludge bed reactor; Aerobic granular sequencing batch reactor. An equal level of innovation and diverse process application was shown in the sludge and liquor treatment schemes with struvite crystallization for resource

recovery of Phosphorous and the “Demon” process for direct deammonification.

Ian also observed a refreshing new approach, free of any view of industry norms, to presenting a Process Flow Diagram with mass balance.

The project was concluded with a formal presentation at Imperial to a judging panel with visiting academics and Imperial is keen to refine and continue the project in 2015 working with MWH. Ian also presented his work with the students at the High Wycombe Comms Forum.

Systems SUSTAINABLE  SEWAGE  SOLUTIONS  

A   B  

C   D  

Final Mass Balance SUSTAINABLE  SEWAGE  SOLUTIONS  

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Snippets

As part of the “Severn Trent AMP6 Engineering Consultancy Framework Agreement” Phil Dyke is undertaking a project to review the AMP6 flooding program using resources from the Wakefield office which draws on experience gained from a similar AMP5 project for NWL. Lisa Aspinall is also seconded into the STW Longbridge Office 2 days per week to help develop a process for the validation of the current DG5 flooding register in preparation for the move to a risk based flooding incident register in AMP6.

The Pipelines Team at High Wycombe recently attended a one week MSc module on Corrosion Engineering at the University of Surrey. The course was extremely informative and included lectures from a number of industry experts. The main advantage of this training was in understanding the mechanisms of corrosion and how to prevent corrosion causing failure of metal components. The knowledge we gained will help us in developing a greater understanding of the reasons for pipeline failure, as well as how to prevent corrosion in new pipelines. This will have great relevance, and could provide significant opportunities, for the Eight2O JV in terms of management of TW’s new and existing infrastructure.

Stéphane English was pleased to get positive feedback from Mike Newberry, a new electrical engineer in Solihull, who did a quick search in KNet to find out how to set up his email signature. Mike said “Lesson number one,: search Knet first!, the similar set up in xylem was nowhere near as good, so I have become conditioned to not looking there first.” This, and other templates can be found in KNet Home > Our Company > Communications > MWH Templates

MWH were approached as a sole supplier for a project backed by WaterUK and have been commissioned to produce a discussion document on behalf of UKWIR entitled ‘The Roadmap for Sewerage Infrastructure’. The document will detail what sort of sewerage infrastructure is needed and desirable by 2040, the investment needed in the AMPs leading up to this date, and any possible barriers that would need to be overcome. Steve Kenney is leading an MWH team of Wastewater Infrastructure experts who will be utilising the extensive and varied knowledge base within the MWH global Wastewater Knowledge Community to prepare a draft submission over the coming months for submission mid November.

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