A virtual system could see Northumbrian Water bringing the future to life, to help protect people and the environment during an incident.
The water company and Newcastle University are working together to progress an idea around incident response, which came out of one of the 13 ‘sprints′ held at the company′s Innovation Festival 2018.
The organisations are exploring the potential of using ‘Digital Twin′ technology - a virtual model of the real world, to help predict the impact of a burst pipe or heavy rainfall.
The ‘Twincident′ idea would allow Northumbrian Water to run simulations of an area during an incident to show what could happen over a 24 hour period, in just a couple of minutes.
This would be used to understand whether homes and businesses are in danger of being flooded, or environments being polluted, and prioritise the appropriate response actions.
Northumbrian Water's Research and Development Manager, Chris Jones said:
"During an incident, it′s really important to identify problems early, in order to make the best decisions and reduce the impact on our customers and the environment.
"Harnessing the power of digital twin technology to progress our ‘Twincident′ idea would help us to have an even better insight and response to incidents, and we′re really excited about working in partnership with Newcastle University to make it happen."
Newcastle University's Chris Kilsby, Professor of Hydrology and Climate Change in the School of Engineering, commented:
"We′re delighted that we will be able to put our research to good use working with Northumbrian Water.
"Twincident is an excellent way of bringing together our new computer models of flooding with real time monitoring data, to enable much better decisions and responses in an important real-world application."
The idea was developed further at Northumbrian Water′s ‘Day of Innovation′ last week which took place at Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex.
virtual system could see Northumbrian Water bringing the future to life, to help protect people and the environment during an incident.
The water company and Newcastle University are working together to progress an idea around incident response, which came out of one of the 13 ‘sprints′ held at the company′s Innovation Festival 2018.
The organisations are exploring the potential of using ‘Digital Twin′ technology - a virtual model of the real world, to help predict the impact of a burst pipe or heavy rainfall.
The ‘Twincident′ idea would allow Northumbrian Water to run simulations of an area during an incident to show what could happen over a 24 hour period, in just a couple of minutes.
This would be used to understand whether homes and businesses are in danger of being flooded, or environments being polluted, and prioritise the appropriate response actions.
Northumbrian Water's Research and Development Manager, Chris Jones said:
"During an incident, it′s really important to identify problems early, in order to make the best decisions and reduce the impact on our customers and the environment.
"Harnessing the power of digital twin technology to progress our ‘Twincident′ idea would help us to have an even better insight and response to incidents, and we′re really excited about working in partnership with Newcastle University to make it happen."
Newcastle University's Chris Kilsby, Professor of Hydrology and Climate Change in the School of Engineering, commented:
"We′re delighted that we will be able to put our research to good use working with Northumbrian Water.
"Twincident is an excellent way of bringing together our new computer models of flooding with real time monitoring data, to enable much better decisions and responses in an important real-world application."
The idea was developed further at Northumbrian Water′s ‘Day of Innovation′ last week which took place at Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex.
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
ERG, the leading supplier of odour control systems and industrial gas cleaning & thermal systems, has been awarded the coveted King’s Award for Enterprise.
Welsh Water’s new artificial intelligence-driven tool, ORAI, has been shortlisted for three categories at the prestigious British Data Awards 2026 – underscoring the company’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to deliver better outcome for customers.
Barhale has completed work on two separate Rapid Action Taskforce Spills projects it is carrying out for Severn Trent.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.