Southern Water’s Bluewave and Learning and Development teams have been working on a new way of using virtual reality (VR) to improve how it responds to pollution incidents.

The water company is using VR technology to create a virtual environment, enabling teams to be trained in conditions that mimic the real-life pressure of a live incident.

According to Southern Water, this means it can refine and improve how it responds in a real-life setting, helping to reduce the number of pollution incidents and their impact on the community and the environment.

A live incident can be the first time a first responder faces the magnitude of a potential pollution risk.

Southern Water needed to enable its operational teams to experience a pollution incident more realistically and learn how to put classroom training into practice, without having to wait for a live incident where the stakes could be much higher.

The company had first tested how it might do ‘pollution drills’ as guided conversations, with experts, - however, these had limitations., Southern Water began to consider VR when it was exploring different ways to bring the experience alive.

The VR technology places the user in a computer-generated environment, where they can move and interact in a completely immersed experience.

Using virtual reality to train for incident response

According to Southern Water, the technology is advanced and sophisticated but has the additional benefit of being a much more cost-efficient way to train and prepare operational teams.

VR technology has made significant advances over the last decade and its impact is growing rapidly beyond gaming, to sectors like education, architecture, medicine and wellness.

The utility said the possibility of using VR to replicate high pressure environments in a safe way, offers training experience for operational teams that could not be achieved in other ways.

VR proof of concept

The company has now developed a VR proof of concept which it can test rapidly and learn from with operational teams, alongside a local company specialising in the use of VR for training, who had previous experience working with water companies.

The proof of concept allows operational teams to respond to a pollution incident, and crucially provides a safety net to make mistakes, without there being a significant real-world impact.

Users can explore a virtual site – identifying what might have gone wrong, sample, take photos and get feedback on their experience.

Southern Water now plans to complete testing of the proof of concept, before rolling this out further as part of pollutions training.