This webinar explored innovative data science projects enhancing water delivery through demand forecasting and anomaly detection, driving efficiency, reliability, and operational improvements across irrigation districts.

You can watch it online here

Experts from our quickstart projects shared key outcomes and explored how data science and automation are transforming water management. 

Reporting on two innovative projects, results show improving efficiency, reliability, and flexibility in water delivery, and demand forecasting and anomaly detection are optimising water distribution, preventing costly infrastructure failures. 

The presenter delved into the importance of organisational change and ways to drive rapid innovation in the industry. Key topics included:

• – Leveraging data for improved irrigation efficiency;
• – Demand forecasting for optimised water distribution;
• – Anomaly detection for enhanced infrastructure reliability;
• – Building a data-driven culture within your organisation.

Presenters

Dr Joseph Guillaume is One Basin’s Foresight and Decisions Program Lead, and a Research Fellow in the Institute for Water Futures and the Fenner School of Environment & Society.

Dr Guillaume specialises in uncertainty management in decision support, with a particular focus on water resources and the use of integrated modelling. As part of an interdisciplinary approach, research includes development of new algorithms and tools for uncertainty analysis and decision support, modelling, text analysis, interviews and workshop based approaches to understanding current uncertainty management practices, and action research exploring alternative futures and institutional arrangements to improve organisational capacity to tackle an uncertain future.

Dr Serena Hamilton is a research fellow in the area of water resources management and socio-environmental systems modelling. Her research has focussed on integrated assessment and modelling for improving understanding of system linkages and management of environmental resources and assets. She completed her PhD at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU in 2013.

Sam Yenamandra is the Manager of Innovations and Strategic Partnerships at Murrumbidgee Irrigation, where he has played a pivotal role in helping transform the company into an industry leader in irrigation services. Under his leadership, the team at Murrumbidgee Irrigation pioneered the development of an advanced digital twin to optimise asset performance on a system scale by leveraging their vast network of automated assets, spanning across 360,000 hectares. Sam has also spearheaded the integration of Data Science, AI and machine learning into risk management strategies, enabling proactive solutions that enhance customer service. These innovative approaches and relentless focus on customer value has earned Murrumbidgee Irrigation recognition as one of the top 10 most innovative utility companies in the country.