MWH Soft has announced the newest release of CapPlan Water for H2OMAP Water and InfoWater. The new release incorporates dozens of new features requested by customers and expands the CapPlan Water functionality onto the H2OMAP platform. Since its initial release in March 2009, CapPlan Water has proven to be a revolutionary engineering GIS-based decision support tool for the optimization of pipeline rehabilitation and renewal spending.
Many of the world’s drinking water distribution systems are reaching or have exceeded their design lives and urgently require extensive upgrading through rehabilitation, repair and/or replacement. As aging systems deteriorate, they become increasingly vulnerable to structural failures and are plagued by excessive leaks, drops in capacity, poor water quality and service disruptions. Age-related water infrastructure failures are commonly unexpected and catastrophic, resulting in large water losses, flooding and local area damage.
Because of the public health and safety implications, water utilities are forced to meet the challenges of keeping their infrastructures up to date and efficient. This can require expenditures that exceed available funds. Making effective and economical alterations and improvements starts with good investment planning decisions based on sound analysis.
The forward-looking CapPlan Water changes the way water utilities plan the relative phasing of system improvements by allowing users to assess both the probability and consequence of failure for each asset. Likelihood of failure is determined based on the pipe’s physical condition (structural integrity, age, material, roughness factor, leakage/break/defect history) and location (proximity to a seismic fault or construction zone), as well as its hydraulic performance characteristics (headloss, pressure, velocity). Consequence of failure draws on data such as water outages (schools, hospitals, critical-care facilities); low- and no-water conditions; reduced fire protection capabilities; flooding, including structural damage and impacts of chlorinated water in natural waterways; degradation of water quality; and other impacts. Assets that affect system operation will normally rate high on the consequence scale, while assets in poor condition will have a high probability of failure.
The updated CapPlan Water release incorporates many new features, including: more flexible likelihood of failure calculations; the ability to limit the rehabilitation analysis and calculations to a selection set of the system; the capacity to prioritize and equalize rehabilitation based on any zone, district, ward, neighborhood, etc., within the system; graphical editing or rationalization of rehabilitation project phasing; and visual improvements to reports, charts and graphs.
“Many utilities have reached a crossroads where the ‘find-and-fix’ approach to waterline replacement is no longer fiscally possible or responsible,” said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D, president and chief operating officer of MWH Soft. “Creating an engineered, prioritized pipe replacement and renewal plan has become a top priority. Our newest CapPlan Water release is the latest example of our company’s steadfast commitment to continued innovation in response to customer needs. It delivers the advanced functionality water professionals need to help strengthen and optimize their hydraulic infrastructures and keep them operating efficiently well into the future.”
For more information, visit www.mwhsoft.com.
