SIAAP adopts InfoWorks CS for Paris area wastewater planning

Wallingford Software, a leading developer of hydraulic modeling and network data management software for the worldwide water industry, has announced that SIAAP (Syndicat Interdépartmental pour l’assainissement de l’agglomeration parisienne, a major French ‘collectivité’ in wastewater management) has purchased InfoWorks CS, the leading software solution that integrates asset and business planning with urban drainage network modeling. InfoWorks CS provides water utilities with a uniquely effective tool with which to undertake hydrological modeling of the complete urban water cycle.

SIAAP will use the software to help ensure the success of its 25-year remit, which includes managing wastewater transportation, wastewater treatment and flood prevention, as well as maintaining the environmental quality of the Seine and Marne rivers for the greater Paris area.

The organisation required detailed flow information for Paris and suburban areas including Val-de-Marne, Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-Saint-Denis. Its criteria for choosing software to achieve its aims included a requirement for high quality software and compatibility with systems used by the high level consultancies such as PROLOG, SETUDE, Hydratec and SAFEGE, which work for the organization. It also needed a system that would be compatible with existing software tools such as its GIS system, and that would be readily customised to meet its particular requirements.

SIAAP required a strong commitment from its supplier, and efficient follow-up and client liaison systems. For such a major public establishment, technical quality was more important than financial considerations. It was also important for the software to have a French interface, and to be able to provide a two-year time series simulation, both of which are features available in InfoWorks CS.

The first model used by SIAAP was also from Wallingford Software. Of importance to SIAAP was the fact that the public establishment’s commitment to client service meant that it was on site from the beginning of the project. Rene Dupas, Director of Geomod, Wallingford Software’s French distributor, said: ‘There is a confident relationship between SIAAP, Geomod and Wallingford Software and the company’s software is already used by SIAAP’s major consultancy partners.’

The 1930 km2 Paris and suburban areas including Val-de -Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis and Hauts-de-Seine has eight million inhabitants in all, producing 3M.m3 of wastewater daily. There are 2350km of sewers in Ile de France alone, 160km of which are large diameter mains of between 2.5 and 4m in diameter, buried between 10m and 100m below the surface.

The organisation has an annual operational budget of E357 million, a capital budget of E459 million, and has set a goal of providing 100% treatment by 2015 to meet European directives.

SIAAP’s wastewater treatment works include the massive Achères plant, whose 2,100M.m3/day throughput makes it the largest in Europe. Other notable plants include Colombes, at 240,000 m3/day, Noisy le Grand at 30,000 m3/day and the Valenton plant, which is being massively extended to take flows of 600,000 m3/day by 2005.

SIAAP’s extensive network of holding tanks and reservoir tunnels ranging from the 165,000 m3 Stade de France to the smallest, the 15,000m3 Proudhon facility. This necessitates a flexible and comprehensive flow management capability.

Essential for identifying and justifying cost effective infrastructure improvements, InfoWorks CS also provides a practical method for operational control, including real time control, of wastewater networks. Other applications include urban flooding and pollution prediction and the modelling of water quality and sediment transport throughout the network. As well as supporting fast and accurate network modelling, InfoWorks CS includes specific tools to support the modelling of subcatchment take-off and infiltration. Offering exceptionally fast and robust simulations, InfoWorks CS facilitates the swift modelling of total networks or any sub-network. Users may now simulate models of up to 100,000 nodes with confidence that the results will be as accurate as those for far smaller models. www.wallingfordsoftware.com