In June 2013 a party from the Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project in Australia visited the United Kingdom and the United States of America to engage with partner organisations UKWIR and Water RF, and to transfer technology to their subscribers. The party included Chairman Paul Freeman and Industry Partner Representative Dammika Vitanage from Sydney Water, Chief Investigator Professor Jayantha Kodikara from Monash University, Professor Robert Melchers from The University of Newcastle, Associate Professor Jaime Valls Miro from University of Technology Sydney, and Project Manager Philip Stevens from Monash University.
In the first week of June in the UK, the party held discussions with Northumbrian Water in Durham, Yorkshire Water in Bradford, Affinity Water near St Albans and Thames Water at Kempton Park. A technology transfer workshop was also held at the offices of UK WIR at 1 Queen Anne’s Gate in London, which many more utilities from the UK water industry attended.
In the second week the party was based in Denver, Colorado to attend the American Water Works Association annual convention ACE13, and to engage with Water RF. Party members participated in two Water RF facilitated workshops, attended the Water RF annual Subscriber Breakfast and were able to inspect exhibits in the Colorado Convention Centre. As part of ACE13, the team delivered a progress report on the research outcomes to date of the Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project at a public technical track session moderated by Water RF and held in the Convention Centre. Following the presentations on Activities 1, 2 and 3 the team participated in an open forum discussion with representatives of North American water utilities.
Photograph taken on 6th June during the visit of the Australian party to Affinity Water north west of London showing (from left to right) Mike Sheppard of UK WIR, Joe Sanders of Affinity Water, Jaime Valls Miro of UTS, Rob Melchers of The University of Newcastle and Jayantha Kodikara of Monash University.
Photograph of the Colorado Convention Center, the location of ACE13.