Keith Muller:"AI in the water sector has the potential to transform how we manage critical events"

As water professionals navigate an increasingly complex landscape, this discussion provides a forward-looking perspective on how digital tools are revolutionizing the sector. Join us as we uncover Autodesk’s role in shaping a more sustainable and resilient water future with Keith Muller at the helm.

What are the main challenges currently facing the water sector, and how can digital tools help overcome them?

The water sector faces a variety of challenges, such as aging infrastructure, the impacts of climate change, and growing resource scarcity that puts a strain on utilities and water systems. Digital tools help address these issues by providing water professionals with accurate, real-time data for better decision-making, enabling predictive maintenance, and facilitating more efficient resource management. Our customers feel the urgency of improving resiliency across their systems and digital tools are a key step in helping them create more efficient and collaborative end-to-end workflows.

For example, Autodesk’s AI-enabled modeling and simulation tools empower utilities to precisely model and visualize stormwater systems under various scenarios, enhancing their ability to predict and prepare for extreme weather events. Real-time monitoring provides them with dynamic views of water levels and system performance, and asset management tools help them assess and prioritize maintenance needs, ensuring their infrastructure remains reliable.

How is Autodesk supporting utilities transitioning from legacy systems to cloud-based solutions? How does Autodesk’s subscription model support this adoption?

We support utilities through every step of the transition process, from initial assessment and planning to implementation and ongoing support. Utilities will often find that moving into the cloud makes optimizing their assets a more collaborative process and reduces the computational burden on their local systems. This also allows them to simulate more alternatives and operating scenarios than ever before, providing a deeper understanding of the impacts of uncertain weather events.

Our solutions are designed to be user-friendly and scalable, ensuring that utilities can adopt new technologies with minimal disruption to their operations, and our variety of subscription options are also built to ensure flexibility based on our customers’ needs.

How does Autodesk define sustainability and resilience in the context of water infrastructure?

In the context of water infrastructure, sustainability means designing systems that use resources efficiently, reduce environmental impact, and can be maintained over the long term. We also want to ensure that today’s water systems are resilient – that they can withstand and quickly recover from adverse conditions like system failures or extreme weather. Autodesk’s approach combines both concepts by promoting practices and technologies that enhance efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and ensure infrastructure can adapt to changing conditions. This is seen through the work of customers like the City of Fayetteville, which leveraged Autodesk technology to map and model watersheds that would bring improved flood resiliency to the community.

What Autodesk technologies help utilities improve operational efficiency, ensure real-time monitoring, and balance modernization with environmental responsibility?

Autodesk’s approach enhances efficiency, reduces environmental impact, and ensures infrastructure adapts to changing conditions effectively

Autodesk technologies like InfoDrainage and InfoWorks ICM improve operational efficiency by providing detailed modeling and simulation capabilities. InfoDrainage empowers engineers to deliver sustainable, cost-effective, and compliant drainage designs, while InfoWorks ICM allows them to model complex hydraulic and hydrologic elements quickly in a collaborative environment.

For improved operational analytics and asset management, Autodesk offers Info360 Asset, Info360 Insight, and Info360 Plant, which allow users to build collaborative workspaces and leverage real-time data through digital twins. Since our water tools fit into Autodesk’s ecosystem, they can also be connected to other infrastructure solutions with integrations in Civil 3D. By integrating environmental considerations into the design and planning processes, these technologies help utilities modernize their infrastructure while minimizing environmental impact.

Are there any notable customer examples of these technologies at work?

Absolutely, we’ve seen several customers use Autodesk’s technology to create more sustainable and resilient water infrastructure. In Charleston, North Carolina, engineers leveraged InfoDrainage to fortify the city’s seawall and improve its drainage capacity, helping protect the surrounding community from future flooding events. In Amsterdam, InfoWorks ICM helped optimize the design of the RESILIO project’s blue-green roofs. These roofs combine vegetation and water management systems to retain and slowly release stormwater, reducing the risk of urban flooding. Ultimately, InfoWorks ICM models helped determine that, depending on the suitability of the roofs, 11-19% of the water volume that floods the streets during extreme rainfall can be prevented.

What role do AI, IoT, and cloud-based technologies play in shaping the future of the water sector?

AI in the water sector is evolving at a rapid pace and it has the potential to transform how we manage critical events like flooding. By bringing together data from rainfall forecasts, IoT sensors, and infrastructure models, AI can provide utilities with a single, unified view of their systems ahead of real-time. 

For example, AI-enabled systems can predict water level changes with precision based on real-time rainfall data and modeled system capacity. This allows operators to take preemptive actions such as redirecting flows, putting temporary systems in place, or issuing early warnings to communities at risk. It’s not just about responding quickly; it’s about responding accurately, which can make all the difference in critical moments. Cloud-based technologies are essential to this vision, as they facilitate data integration and accessibility, ensuring stakeholders have up-to-date information for their decision-making.

We’ve also already seen AI play a role in proactive pipeline maintenance – VAPAR’s AI Integration with Info360 Asset leverages AI to automate pipeline condition assessments, improving efficiency, accuracy, and enabling utilities to prioritize repairs based on risk and condition.

What advice would you give to water professionals looking to future-proof their operations?

The more water professionals can move toward tools that enable proactive action, the more ‘future-proof’ their operations will be. For example, AI predictive modeling opens a door to a future where flood control is even further driven by foresight. By adopting cloud-connected digital tools, utilities will be able to better simulate potential scenarios, identify vulnerabilities, and implement preventative measures before an event occurs.

I’d also encourage water professionals to evaluate the impact that technologies can have end-to-end across the entire lifecycle. We see many utilities operating on older versions of their technology, when upgrading to more current versions can help them take advantage of new tools. More updated technologies will also be able to provide them with a fuller picture of their networks.