Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2021

62 RECAP
Novel no more: Bentley’s
digital twins webinar
builds upon existing
ecosystems
The digital twin has come a long way since its
concept and model were first introduced in
2002: Then known as the conceptual model
underlying product lifecycle management
(PLM), the digital twin got its name in a
2010 Roadmap Report published by the
USA’s National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), and in 2017 was
named one of Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic
Technology Trends.
Co-organised by Bentley Systems and Water &
Wastewater Asia magazine, the Water Digital
Twins for Improved Decision-Making &
Optimized Asset and Process Management
webinar was held on 24 November.
The webinar was aimed at showcasing some
of the latest advancements in digital twins,
and how water management can achieve new
levels of digitalisation and intelligent
automation with the usage of digital twins.
Speakers at the webinar included:
• Dr Richard Vestner, Senior Director Digital
Solutions under the Digital Cities arm of
Bentley Systems,
• Wagner Oliveira de Carvalho, Senior
Project Manager at AEGEA, Brazil, and
• Miguel Soares, product consultant for
Bentley’s water solutions, with a focus on
the EMEA region.
During the webinar, Vestner talked about
how Information, Operational, and
Engineering Technology (IT, OT and ET)
could come together to curate a digital twin
that could enable and drive real-time industry
applications to assist in making better
decisions, such as in mixed-reality applications,
or for analysis and prediction purposes.
He also stressed the importance of utilising an
open and connected data environment, and
touched on how the water industry could
advance to the concept of Water 4.0 through
usage of the data loop and Industry 4.0
resources. In fact, he elaborated, it was of
Webinar speaker Dr Richard Vestner highlighted the importance of utilising an open and connected data
environment to further advance the concept of digital twins
paramount importance to build upon the
principles of connectedness and openness
for digital twins. This applies to both
applications and file systems used to sort
data, as well as file formats and schemas
utilised by plants and operators. Open
source ecosystems, he concluded, are best
for digital twins to allow for integration with
other systems.
Other key topics addressed by the webinar
speakers included tips on how organisations
could optimise plant and network
operations. Soares shared how Bentley’s
OpenFlows WaterSight allows for the
computation of present, historic, and
forecasted performance for every asset
within a water supply
system; and more
importantly, how digital
twins could be configured
using existing utility
features.
By combining SCADA, GIS,
hydraulic modelling, and
customer information into
a single, interoperable
dashboard, OpenFlows
WaterSight delivers
utility-wide view into
the detection of critical
system and individual asset performance
information, and enables more efficient
operations and maintenance planning
decisions.
Previous case studies were cited as learning
opportunities for webinar attendees, with
Águas do Porto (AdP) used as an example
of how utilities could work together
43.8% of attendees
polled said that their utilities
were currently on the path
towards embracing digital twins
During the webinar, speaker Miguel Soares
shared how digital twins could be configured
using existing utility features
with Bentley Systems to develop smart water
platforms. Bentley’s OpenFlows applications
were used as the basis of Águas do Porto’s
H2PORTO smart water platform, which was
then used to automatically model water levels
and flow based on real-world conditions and
weather forecasts to predict flooding, service
interruptions, or water quality
problems.
The webinar concluded on
a positive note, with a poll
revealing that 43.8% of
attendees were currently on
the path towards integrating
digital twins more in their
utility’s operations. Attendees
were also presented with a
Certificate of Accomplishment
upon completing the session.
The webinar was moderated
by Daniel Chua, Consultant to Water &
Wastewater Asia, and Daniel Martens, Sales
Consultant (South East Asia) for Bentley
Systems Singapore.
A recording for the Bentley Systems & WWA:
Water Digital Twins for Improved Decision-Making
& Optimized Asset and Process Management
webinar can be viewed on-demand.
January / February 2021 • waterwastewaterasia.com