New Data Management System for Boston Water and Sewer

Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) has selected FlowWorks to help pull data together across three different management platforms to better understand storm water and flood events. The FlowWorks tools will allow BWSC to investigate the dynamics of rainfall, trunk flow and level, and pressure fluctuations in real time to better understand the causes of basin flooding.

The project will generate a great deal of data, and FlowWorks will work with Flow Assessment Services of Bedford, N.H. Flow Assessment provides flow-monitoring services to BWSC under contract, and will perform all data acquisition field services and QA/QC for the project.

FlowWorks is working with Paul Keohan, project manager at the BWSC, to improve the access to data being collected at various locations around Boston. BWSC recently expanded rainfall data collection to better understand the distribution of rain across the city.  Under another project, BWSC is measuring water depths and velocities in a portion of the collection system that is influenced by wet weather and shows potential for flooding. FlowWorks will make it possible to integrate the data from both of these projects into one platform that BWSC can access outside of normal working hours. 

According to Paul Keohan, being able to access rainfall and depths during a large storm, rather than using rainfall forecasts, will improve BWSC’s ability to monitor the collection system and determine if corrective measures are needed to prevent flooding.