Take the Lead: Proactive Water Management for Modern Utilities

15 minutes ago
7 min read

The High Cost of a Reactive Approach

Operating in a constant state of reaction creates a cycle of inefficiency and expense. When a water main breaks or a significant leak appears, the consequences ripple through the entire system and community.

1. Water Loss and Non-Revenue Water (NRW)

A significant challenge is non-revenue water, which arises primarily from leaks within the water distribution system. Reactive management often means leaks go undetected for long periods, wasting a precious resource and the energy used to treat, pump and convey it. Left undetected, these leaks can grow and eventually result in major line breaks. This directly impacts operational budgets and sustainability goals.

2. Aging Infrastructure and Unplanned Repairs

Much of the nation's water infrastructure is nearing–or even exceeding–the end of its intended lifespan. Pipes installed decades ago are increasingly prone to failure. A reactive strategy waits for these failures to happen, resulting in disruptive and expensive emergency repairs. These emergencies often cost far more than planned maintenance and can lead to boil water advisories, property damage, and significant inconvenience for residents.

3. Loss of Community Trust

Frequent service disruptions, boil water notices, and unexpected rate hikes erode public confidence. Residents and businesses depend on a consistent water supply. When that line is broken due to repeated system failures, it becomes more difficult to secure funding for necessary upgrades and gain community support for important water initiatives.

Making the Shift: Tools for Proactive Water Management

Transitioning from a reactive to a proactive model requires insight, data, and the right tools. Oldcastle Infrastructure is committed to providing solutions that empower water managers to get ahead of problems. With advanced analytics and smart technology, you can move from crisis management to strategic asset management.

At the forefront of this technological shift is Oldcastle Infrastructure's CivilSense™ — an AI-powered water asset management solution. This platform uses advanced acoustic sensors and predictive data analytics to deliver insight into water infrastructure components, providing unprecedented visibility into your system's health.

AI-Powered Leak Detection

CivilSense™ leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze data from sensors deployed within your network. This technology can detect acoustic signatures of even minor leaks with market-leading 93% leak detection accuracy. By identifying these issues early, you can schedule repairs on your own terms, preventing catastrophic failures and dramatically reducing water loss. This transforms leak detection from a guessing game into a precise, data-driven process.

Predictive Risk Modelling

It is often assumed that pipe failure rates correlate with the age of the pipe, but data shows that this is not the case. So how do you decide which pipes to replace first with a limited budget? CivilSense™ provides the answer through predictive risk modeling. The system analyzes factors like pipe material, age, soil conditions, and historical failure data to identify the segments of your network at the highest risk of failure. This allows you to prioritize capital improvement projects with confidence, ensuring that every dollar is spent where it will have the greatest impact.

Make a Smart Investment with Data-Driven Insights

Securing funding for infrastructure upgrades is a major hurdle. Proving the financial benefit of proactive investments is critical. Oldcastle Infrastructure provides tools designed to build a powerful business case for a forward-thinking approach.

The CivilSense™ ROI Calculator

To help you demonstrate the value of proactive management, the CivilSense™ ROI Calculator is an essential tool. This calculator allows you to input data specific to your utility — such as the cost of water, repair expenses, and current rates of water loss. It then projects the potential cost savings and return on investment from implementing CivilSense™ technology.

By quantifying the financial benefits of reduced water loss, minimized emergency repairs, and extended asset life, the ROI calculator provides the hard data needed to justify investments to city councils, board members, and other stakeholders. It translates the abstract benefits of "proactive management" into concrete financial figures.

Proactive water management isn’t just an investment in infrastructure, it’s an investment in your community’s future. By leveraging advanced technologies such as CivilSense™, Municipal Water Managers can optimize system performance, conserve valuable resources, and build public confidence.

The time to act is now. Adopting a forward-thinking approach ensures a resilient, efficient, and sustainable water supply for generations to come.

This article is sponsored content in collaboration with Oldcastle Infrastructure and is published by The SustainabilityX® Magazine—an award-winning, female-founded and female-led digital nonprofit platform that has been advancing sustainability and driving impact through bold dialogue since 2016. We are committed to transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women’s leadership. As an independent publication dedicated to high-impact storytelling, we rely on the support of our community and mission-aligned partners to continue our work. Please note: we do not share your personal information with advertisers, and our editorial content remains fully independent of financial contributors.

About CivilSense™

Oldcastle Infrastructure’s CivilSense™ is an advanced water infrastructure management platform that leverages artificial intelligence, acoustic sensing, and real-time data to proactively detect and address leaks before they escalate into emergencies. With a market-leading accuracy rate of 93%, CivilSense™ enables municipalities to transition from reactive maintenance to strategic, data-driven asset management, effectively reducing water loss and associated costs. By integrating multi-source data—including GIS, infrastructure, and climate insights—CivilSense™ identifies high-risk pipeline segments, allowing for targeted interventions that enhance the resilience and sustainability of water systems. This innovative solution empowers communities to safeguard their water resources, minimize service disruptions, and optimize infrastructure investments.

About OldCastle Infrastructure

Oldcastle Infrastructure, a CRH company, is a leading provider of engineered building solutions across North America. With nearly 80 manufacturing facilities and a workforce of over 4,000 employees, the company delivers a comprehensive portfolio of more than 16,000 products, including precast concrete, polymer concrete, and plastic components. These solutions serve critical sectors such as water, energy, communications, and transportation, supporting the development and maintenance of essential infrastructure.

Committed to sustainability and innovation, Oldcastle Infrastructure aligns its operations with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on responsible consumption, climate action, and the advancement of sustainable communities. As part of CRH plc, one of the world's largest building materials companies, Oldcastle Infrastructure combines global resources with local expertise to deliver reliable, high-quality solutions that meet the evolving needs of modern infrastructure projects.

About The SustainabilityX® Magazine

The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.

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Take the Lead: Proactive Water Management for Modern Utilities

Sponsored By Oldcastle Infrastructure | From Scarcity to Sustainability: How Smart Technology and Predictive Analytics Are Transforming Municipal Water Systems from Reactive to Resilient

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