Natural- and human-made threats to our global water supply get more complex as populations surge and the demand for water across industries increases. Since there is no new water on Earth, all water goes through a natural cycle and is essentially recycled water before it is treated, tested and returned to homes and businesses as drinking water. In recent decades, forward-thinking organizations have looked to replicate nature more closely by reclaiming the water once viewed as waste and recycling it to augment water supplies.

The frequency and intensity of urban flooding has had devastating impacts on exposed communities across the globe, from the economic cost of damage and disruption, to mental and physical health and displacement. The challenge in managing this hazard is complicated as the cause of floods is often poorly understood and mitigation can be secondary to water quality considerations for sewer programs. However, by taking a holistic approach to understanding the causes and developing solutions, mitigating urban flooding presents opportunities to deliver improvements to neighborhoods and communities. This webinar examines the causes of urban flooding, the opportunities available from a proactive approach to mitigation and the importance of community engagement in understanding the problem and developing solutions.

With the global shift to clean energy growth, hydrogen can be part of the solution in our drive toward a decarbonized, sustainable future. Cost, however, remains a major barrier to adoption. In this webinar you’ll learn about case studies to explore whether using oxygen in wastewater treatment processes could create enough savings for the wastewater treatment plant to effectively subsidize the cost of hydrogen production and increase its commercial viability.

It’s time to think differently about the future – about how we respond to unanticipated events like COVID-19 and how we prepare for and mitigate the natural, societal and economic risks associated with climate change. When individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems are resilient, they’re able to withstand, recover quickly and thrive – no matter what adversities they experience. In this session, we will examine resilience and preparedness in the context of climate change, with a focus on investigating ‘undisclosed risks’ and the full range of short- and long-term climate risks, and a holistic asset management approach for addressing climate change. We will hear from Melbourne Water, which provides drinking water and wastewater services for the approximately 5 million people living in the Melbourne metropolitan area and Thames Estuary Asset Management 2100, the Environment Agency’s single largest flood risk management program in England.

In this session, we examine the value chain elements from the technology sector and discuss the challenges and opportunities in the transition to a net-zero future. Technology impacts all sectors of the economy and is integral to everyday life for people and businesses worldwide. It is a sector that has continued to yield exponential growth while committing to the most ambitious corporate climate targets. In this Climate Week NYC webinar, we hear from several players within this value chain, with speakers from Microsoft, Western Digital and Jacobs talking about their call to action and the decarbonization of the value chain.

Communities around the world are struggling to understand the true spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While testing is occurring at an increased rate, it’s extremely difficult to get to a sufficiently high testing level to help drive what’s next such as decisions about reopening businesses, relaxing physical distancing policies and returning to the places we live, work and play. In this webinar you’ll learn how Jacobs is working around the globe to help track, analyze and address COVID-19. The topics covered include tracking COVID-19 in collection systems; modifying laboratory procedures for the virus; as well as closer look into the wastewater epidemiology for COVID-19.

In our technology-driven world, digital representations of physical assets, processes and systems – better known as "digital twins" – are rapidly becoming a preferred practice across markets. In this webinar you’ll learn how Digital Twin solutions enable optimal use of resources allowing solutions to be investigated and tested without putting equipment, public health or the environment at risk.

In this webinar we’ll look at how new digital solutions are helping the industry better manage and maintain water infrastructure. Technology has replaced the proverbial “crystal ball” and is providing real-time maintenance predictions through more complete data, improved data consistency and faster data processing. Learn how Artificial Intelligence and digital innovations are being employed to enable more accurate management of these age-old issues.

This webinar is focused on One Water: An Integrated, Inclusive Approach to a Sustainable Water Future. If we think differently about water and view all water as a valuable resource, we can work to tackle the issues that impact people and move beyond traditional silos to bring an integrated, inclusive approach to a sustainable water future for all.

Jaason Englesmith, Global Technology Leader for Smart Metering at Jacobs, Jason Shaw, Project Manager for AMI at the City of Columbia, SC, and Josh Braman, Global Subject Matter Expert for AMI Implementation at Jacobs, discuss how Jacobs is adapting delivery of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) projects during COVID-19 and the recent success the City of Columbia has had keeping their field installations on-track with accommodations for social distancing and modifications to customer engagement.

Coastal cities globally face many challenges in delivering a safe, affordable and resilient environment for their residents and economy. Added to the pressure of increasing populations and aging infrastructure, is the accelerating impact of climate change, which in the coastal context includes the challenge of sea level rise and coastal storms. OECD research (2013), suggests that across 136 coastal cities globally the population at flood risk could rise from 40 million today to 150 million by 2070, with a corresponding risk of over US$1 trillion of losses per year.

This installment in our webinar series sharing information on the hottest topics trending NOW from some of the foremost industry experts is focused on Water Utility Resiliency — from what it takes to plan and prepare for long-term issues such as climate change, to how to pivot planning and respond to unforeseen challenges such as COVID-19. Resiliency is about how we prepare for and respond to natural, societal and economic risks.