WET News

8 WET NEWS JULY 2017 SUPPORTED BY BUILDING A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR WATER The flagship event for water industry professionals investing in long-term sustainability and shaping the future of the sector. ● Hear how regulatory change might affect the sector post-Brexit ● Prepare your business ahead of PR19 and the publication of WRMPs ● Discover the benefits of partnership-led approaches SuStainable water conference & exhibition 20 september 2017 | birmingham FOLLOW US @WWTlive #suswater 6 Th ANNUAL BOOk NOW events.wwtonline.co.uk/ sustainable Dr Sebastian Catovsky Deputy director – water services Defra Richard Flint Chief executive Yorkshire Water Jean Spencer Director, strategic growth and resilience Anglian Water Tony harrington Director of environment Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Colin Green Director, Water 2020 design Ofwat David Elliott Director of strategy and new markets Wessex Water Yvette Garis Head of environmental regulation Thames Water EXPERT SPEAKERS INCLUDE: IN ASSOCIATION WITH The next generation of sludge treatment. The Dewlink Dehydrator is the complete dewatering solution. It is highly effective, energy efficient, low maintenance, fully automated with a modular compact design. Unit A1, Hortonwood 10 Telford, Shropshire, TF1 7ES Tel: 01952 606847 Email: info@dewlink.com News+ construction in terms of health and safety for staff operating heavy machines and productivity is becoming realised. Group subsidiary Gammon Construction is using the technology in Hong Kong to improve productivity, and Balfour Beatty envisages thye use of exoskeleton says will "have been mainstreamed' by 2050. Wearable health technology will also become standard along with wellbeing packages, says the company. "The industry will become known as being the No.1 industry for those putting health and wellbeing as their top priority, in essence creating a super workforce which leads, amongst other outcomes, to improved productivity." The use of exoskeleton systems also helps to make direct neural control over devices and vehicles possible. A…er all, says the group, research teams at Tianjing's Nankai University16 and Berlin's Free University have already developed cars that can be driven using elements of mind control via sensors in a gadget worn on the head, although experiments are in the early stages. Balfour Beatty says it is not inconceivable that in 30-plus years' time, the technology will have evolved enough to deliver a neural control system which delivers for the construction industry, through implantable microchips – or even without them. "Under this scenario, digital people would be able to use direct neural input to disseminate information and control devices such as "hands free" robots or exoskeletons." But while Balfour Beatty foresees "tremendous benefits" for digitisation, it has also predicted potential hurdles such as: • Increased demands on energy consumption • Processing and using the data in real time will get more difficult • Cyber-security will become more important The blurring of borders is an interesting point with Balfour Beatty declaring that the boundary between the physical as digital becomes more prevalent in all aspects of daily life. Then there is the processing and use of data in real-time. There is soimething like 3.5 billion sensors worldwide that link objects to the internet, and the figure could increase to one trillion by 2022. As a result, Balfour Beatty believes "finding ways to process all the available data that we can put it to best use in understanding our customers' needs, planning investments and predicting better what the impact would be of particular courses of action". Balfour Beatty concludes that "nobody knows for certain where the Digital Revolution will take us". But it emphasis that there is massive potential to transform both the industry and the built environment. And it warns that those companies at the forefront of the digital revolution, which integrate new technologies most effectively, updating their business capabilities and their offer, "will reap the biggest rewards".

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