Transforming Water Utility Asset Management with Nextspace’s 3D Geospatial Digital Twin Platform

The Challenge

A water utility company embarked on a significant asset management transformation journey with the goal of streamlining maintenance processes across its complex waste and water networks. A key milestone in this journey was the development of a comprehensive Building Information Modeling (BIM) program. This initiative began with capturing asset data through point clouds and aimed to evolve into an intelligent, living digital twin. The ultimate objective was to centralize asset information, allowing for real-time monitoring, simulation, and prediction to drive efficiencies and improve decision-making.

However, the water utility faced several challenges:

1. Data Integration and Accessibility: The utility needed to integrate and unify multiple spatial and non-spatial data types, including real-time information from sensors and IoT devices, into a single, easily accessible platform. This data had to be geospatially located and accessible in a single viewer application.
2. Performance Optimization: The solution needed to ensure optimal performance when accessed through standard browsers on desktop, laptop, and tablet devices, even when not equipped with high-end graphics capabilities.
3. Real-Time Data Visualization: The utility required the ability to visualize both historical and real-time data, offering insights into the past, present, and future states of the facilities, assets, and systems.
4. Training and Usability: The utility’s team needed to be trained to use the system effectively, particularly in utilizing features like Bookmarks, Markup, and Commenting, to enhance collaboration and maintenance efficiency.

The Solution

To address these challenges, the water utility company selected Nextspace's 3D geospatial digital twin platform. The solution was designed to meet the specific needs of the utility’s 360 asset data visualizer project, providing a unified interface for all asset-related information.

Nextspace’s platform was chosen for its ability to:

1. Integrate and Unify Data: The platform successfully integrated various data types, including CAD, BIM, point clouds, photogrammetry, and real-time IoT data, into a single, cohesive environment. This provided a comprehensive view of all assets, accessible through the CesiumJS, Unreal Engine, and Nvidia Omniverse viewers.
2. Enhance Performance: The data was optimized to ensure smooth performance, even on standard devices with basic graphics capabilities. This optimization was critical for maintenance engineers who needed to access detailed asset information quickly and efficiently.
3. Visualize Real-Time Data: The solution enabled the visualization of real-time data, such as water quality metrics, pipe flow and pressure, pump efficiency, and tank levels. Users could switch between past, present, and future views, offering a dynamic understanding of asset conditions over time.
4. Provide Remote Training and Support: Nextspace delivered comprehensive training and ongoing support to ensure the utility’s team could independently manage and utilize the platform. The training focused on maximizing the utility of features like Bookmarks and Commenting, crucial for collaboration across different teams.

The Impact

The implementation of the Nextspace digital twin platform resulted in significant improvements in the utility’s asset management capabilities:

1. Streamlined Maintenance Processes: Maintenance engineers can now access and query unified spatial and non-spatial asset data through a single interface, significantly speeding up the time to find and act on critical information.
2. Improved Decision-Making: The ability to visualize and analyze real-time performance data allowed the utility to make more informed decisions, leading to better asset management and reduced operational costs.
3. Enhanced Collaboration: The platform’s features, such as walk-throughs, fly-throughs, and asset annotation, facilitated better collaboration among engineers, improving the efficiency of maintenance operations.

The Value of Streaming with PureWeb's Pixel Streaming Platform

By leveraging PureWeb's pixel streaming platform, the water utility would be able to deliver high-performance, real-time access to its 3D digital twin across a wide range of devices—without the need for high-end hardware or software installations. PureWeb’s streaming solution ensures smooth, lag-free interaction with large and complex datasets, allowing maintenance engineers to visualize and manipulate BIM models seamlessly from any location. This level of accessibility and performance optimization would significantly enhance decision-making, collaboration, and operational efficiency, enabling the utility to fully unlock the potential of its digital twin initiative.