We believe our water quality monitoring Artificial Intelligence is the most advanced, affordable solution available in the world today. 

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Our aim is to make sensing more accessible and affordable so that water operators and building managers are able to more easily understand and mitigate risk in order to better protect the health and well being of people, assets and infrastructure. 

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Our multiparameter sensing provides a more comprehensive array of parameters at a fraction of the cost of other solutions, and acts as a first line of defence to help protect environmental and commercial aspects of water in a range of environments including the sea, rivers, lakes, swimming pools, buildings, and infrastructure. 

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As well as reporting parameters, our AI combines the power of data science with chemical and biological science to produce alerts and alarms based on water quality and water based pathogens, including E.coli and Legionnaires. 

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The wireless sensors we recommend are easy to install and aim to provide low/no maintenance plus and play, fit and forget solutions. 

 

So, whether your responsible for looking after seas, rivers or lakes; have responsibility for building compliance, or manage infrastructure, it is likely that we can help use AI to automate your testing and reporting processes.  We can provide alerts for heterotrophic bacteria and can help by being an early warning system, as your first line of defence, for interventions...

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How good is the AI?

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Our AI has recently been tested in three scenarios:

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1) a European water utility company tested the ability of our AI to detect specific events, and compared our performance to their market leading incumbent system.  We outperformed the incumbent solution;

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2) a global water infrastructure and pipe manufacturer challenged us to demonstrate whether our AI could reduce the number of water quality parameters measured (to reduce the number and cost of sensors needing to be deployed), while achieving the same defined outcome.  We successfully showed that we could reduce the parameters required from 11 to 2;  

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3) in the UK, the organisations responsible for managing and operating Poole Harbour are piloting our AI for low cost continuous monitoring of sea water quality.  The results of validation testing have been extremely positive, with our AI returning accurate results for complex parameters such as phosphates and nitrites when compared with laboratory results.

    

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We are working with water utilities and infrastructure companies on projects covering the following:

 

1) Combined Sewage Overflows.  

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Combined Sewage Overflows are the principle source of diffuse contamination in urban environments. While legal, CSOs are increasingly seen as an unacceptable source of catchment pollution and are coming under increased scrutiny from the Environment Agency. In 2019 the EA prosecuted four water companies for regulatory breaches associated with CSOs, resulting in £1,297,000 in fines. 

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UnifAI is working with the UK water sector to demonstrate how low-cost sensing combined with our cutting-edge artificial intelligence can transform the way CSOs are monitored and managed - providing real-time monitoring and prediction for discharge events including occurrence, geographic impact, duration and severity. This includes a deeper understanding of the down-river impact of discharge events. 

 

2) River Abstraction Points.  

 

River water abstraction is a critical source of drinking water, but river water contains potentially harmful pollutants and requires treatment. Common pollutants can include pesticides, fertiliser and natural organics. These can significantly increase the cost of water treatment.

 

We have extensive experience in using AI to improve the monitoring of water quality in rivers. We are working on providing critical real-time information on water quality to improve processes and reduce costs for water treatment. Using a low-cost sensor network at key locations around and above abstraction points, our trained AI will monitor water quality and provide real-time alerts for key contaminants, to enable pro-active intake management options to reduce the cost treatment. 

 

3) Storm Drain Monitoring.  

 

Cross-contamination of storm drains from sanitary sewer pipes can cause significant down-stream water pollution, including increased harmful bacteria events such as E.Coli in rivers and the beaches. 

UnifAI has extensive experience in using artificial intelligence to identify complex biological events in water, such as the presence of harmful bacteria. We are currently scoping a pilot to use a low-cost sensor network at key locations in a storm drain network to demonstrate a solution using AI to monitor key parameters in the effluent to identify and track the source of the contamination.  
 

4) Health and Wellbeing in Buildings.  

 

Water systems within buildings can be a source of human health risk, principally from the growth of harmful bacteria such as Legionella. This risk can be higher for buildings that are fully or partially unused for periods of time. Recent changes to working practices due to COVID-19 have made this risk worse.

 

UnifAI is working with a health and wellbeing company and an international property management company to pilot the use of our artificial intelligence to provide a comprehensive monitoring system for water infrastructure in buildings, with an early warning system for the presence of dangerous bacteria.

 

5) Ports and Harbours

 

Coastal waters such as ports and harbours are at risk from damaging nutrients flowing down rivers from agricultural runoff and industrial discharges. These can have a negative impact on water quality, causing eutrophication and build-up of algae. Harbour authorities need a way to continuously monitor water quality, particularly nitrates, phosphates and harmful bacteria. 

 

UnifAI with a UK Local Authority and Harbour Authority to utilise our artificial intelligence to improve the water quality monitoring in a sensitive harbour environment that is recognised internationally as an important area for nature conservation and is designated a Special Protection Area. The harbour supports extensive wild and aquaculture shellfish beds. UnifAI has deployed a number of small low-cost, wireless sensors on existing harbour infrastructure such as navigation buoys. These are powered by UnifAI’s proprietary artificial intelligence which is able to determine a wide range of parameters including nitrites and phosphates, and harmful bacteria. 

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If you'd like to know more, or have a project that UnifAI can support, please contact us at info@unifaitechnology.com

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