A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
A
Alternative supply
A backup supply for an area (not necessarily isolated). E.g.: If an area, during certain periods of time (peak hour, summer, etc.), doesn’t provide enough pressure, an alternative supply is opened to restore pressure.
AMI
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is an integrated system of water meters, communication networks, and data management systems that enables two-way communication between meter endpoints and utilities. Consumer meter readings are automatically sent to the utility system without human intervention.
AMR
Automated Meter Reading (AMR) is the communication technology water utilities use to automatically collect water consumption and status data from water meters. AMR systems can be either walk-by or drive-by, and it requires human intervention to be collected.
Analysis
A work mode inside Qatium that allows checking the general state of the network, with a focus on pressures and flows.
Related to Work modes
Arterial
[Pipe] Large pipes bringing water from the source or water treatment plant to a town/city. From them, distribution pipes supply water to customers.
Related to Network levels
Asset
Any physical element existing in the network’s infrastructure (pipe, pump, valve, tank, etc.).
Asset ID
Name assigned to an asset when building the hydraulic model. IDs could be anything, every utility tends to have its own naming rules and templates. It is common practice to use asset initials or the default naming of specific tools in the industry (e.g. InfoWater or WaterGEMS presets).
Related to Asset
Assigned demand
The volume of water assigned to a junction, customer point or hydrant to satisfy the customers needs.
B
Backflow
An unforeseen event that arises when the flow is reversed or mixed with other liquids, gases, or other substances in the distribution system of public water systems from any source other than its intended origin.
Bearer token
Bearer authentication (also called token authentication) is an HTTP authentication scheme that involves security tokens called bearer tokens. The name “bearer authentication” can be understood as “give access to the bearer of this token.” The bearer token is a cryptic string, usually generated by the server in response to a login request.
Boundary valves
Valves in the network that define the limits of a DMA. Sometimes, those limits need to change in order to:
- Improve zone definition (more manageable size, more stable pressure, fewer valves needed to isolate it, …).
- When there is a malfunction in the infrastructure, you might need to open valves to similar pressure areas to maintain a stable supply for customers.
C
Capital improvement planning (CIP)
The planning (financing, location, timing) of capital improvement projects over several years. A capital improvement project (capital project) is typically a permanent structural change or enhancement to a property or asset. For example, a local government maintenance plan of water and wastewater infrastructure.
Catchment
An area of land, usually surrounded by mountains or hills, over which water flows and is collected. Within a catchment, water runs by gravity to the lowest point. The water is called surface runoff if it stays on the top of the land or groundwater flow if it soaks into the ground.
Check valve
A valve that allows fluid flow in only one direction and protects important hydraulic system components. When properly installed, a hydraulic check valve can prevent potentially contaminated fluid from mixing with the fluid of a reservoir, keep the system primed and relieve pressure.
In Qatium this is considered a pipe property.
CSV file
A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a plain text file that contains a list of data. These files are often used for exchanging data between different applications. For example, databases and contact managers often support CSV files.
Customer point
At Qatium we use this term to refer to the points supplied by the water distribution system (a building, for example). We use this data to know the number of consumers affected when making operations on the network.
Also used in Qatium as: customers
D
Data validation
Part of the data enhancement that Qatium performs during data import. It refers to ensuring that the layer attributes comply with the validation rules - otherwise their values are replaced by the established default values.
Related to GIS attribute
Demand (water)
The volume of water requested by users to satisfy their needs. There are two main types of demand: base - which is usually your average daily demand; and unit - which can be a per capita demand based on population, count or area.
Related to Demand pattern, Demand pattern zone, Demand spike
Demand pattern
Average demand behavior over a given period of time. When demands are applied at junctions, they can be either “fixed” or vary over time.
Related to Demand, Demand pattern zone
Demand pattern zone
An area inside a network in which all nodes share the same demand pattern. This is defined by the user and it serves to estimate how much water is consumed in different sectors of a network, when there’s no real data from meters.
Related to Demand Pattern, Demand
Demand spike
Qatium functionality that allows to apply different demands (usually surges in consumption) to selected junctions and see the changes in the network.
Related to Discoloration risk, Scenarios, Demand
Digital twin
A virtual model designed to accurately reflect a physical object. It is a virtual representation of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision-making.
Discoloration risk
Water turbidity is an important parameter in drinking water quality control. It may indicate microbiological contamination, which promotes the adhesion of heavy metals and pesticides. Discoloration doesn't always mean the water is unsafe, but it can reduce disinfection effectiveness and indicate issues in the distribution system. Cloudy water affects public perception of drinking water safety.
In Qatium, we’ll warn you about discoloration risk when performing a demand spike and/or flushing scenario.
Related to Demand Spike, Flushing, Water age
Distribution
[Pipe] Located inside a building delivering potable water to the facilities. The supply system delivering water from the potable source to the building is the "water service" pipe.
Related to Network levels, Arterial
DMA (District metered area)
A special type of zone with identified inlets and outlets that are metered, so that it is possible to know how much water is actually being consumed inside that area.
Related to DMA sectorization
DMA sectorization
The división of a network into metered sub area(s) to monitor consumption, and track Non-Revenue Water (NRW) and leakage, which allows to identify issues and solve them more quickly.
Related to DMA
.DWG file (AutoCAD)
DraWinG (DWG) is a computer drawing file format used primarily by the AutoCAD program, a product of the AutoDesk company. DWG files store drawing information in three dimensions in vector form.
It’s used in Qatium to get a synoptic view.
Related to Synoptic
E
Emitter
Emitters are devices associated with junctions that model the flow through a nozzle or orifice that discharges to the atmosphere.
EPANET treats emitters as a property of a junction and not as a separate network component.
Related to GIS fields
Element
All the objects presented in the network: assets (such as pipes, tanks, valves,…), junctions, zones, etc.
EPANET
Water distribution system modeling software developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Water Supply and Water Resources Division.
F
Fire flow
Fire flow is defined as the flow rate of a water supply that is available for the responding fire department for manual firefighting. Typically this is water that is available at the surrounding fire hydrants, but it can be supplied with another approved source such as a static water supply like a tank or pond, or even using a fire department tanker shuttle service.
Related to Tank, Supply source
Flow
The volume or quantity of water that circulates inside a pipe in a specific time interval.
Flow control valve (FCV)
A type of hydraulic valve consisting of a needle valve and a check valve placed in close proximity in a common body. Commonly used to regulate the flow or pressure of a fluid. They normally respond to signals generated by independent devices such as flow meters or pressure gauges.
Related to Check valve, Flow meter, Pressure gauge
Flowmeter
Flowmeters are instruments that monitor, measure or record the flow rate, volume or mass of a gas or liquid. Flowmeters provide accurate monitoring and/or control of what moves through a pipe or pipeline, including water, air, steam, oil, gases and other liquids.
Flow sensor
Flow sensors are part of flowmeters and interact with the flow, generating raw signals. These signals are then processed by additional devices (loggers) inside the flowmeter and converted into usable flow measurements.
The term is often used interchangeably with flowmeter within the water industry.
Flushing
To improve water quality by removing sediment that slowly builds up at the bottom of the watermain over time or purge stagnant water in the network.
Inside Qatium, it’s a functionality that allows to see different insights in a flushing scenario or to identify issues in the network.
Related to: Unidirectional Flushing (UDF), Discoloration risk, Water age, Scenarios
G
GeoJSON
GeoJSON is an easy-to-use GIS file format. It supports the following geometry types: Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, and MultiPolygon. Geometric objects with additional properties are Feature objects. Sets of features are contained by FeatureCollection objects.
GIS
Geographical information system (GIS): a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface.
GIS attribute
Nonspatial information about a geographic feature in a GIS, is usually stored in a table and linked to the feature by a unique identifier.
Related to GIS
GIS field
[Qatium] In a GIS file, fields are the titles in the columns. During the import of network data, Qatium processes this information according to standard specifications, and displays these fields as properties in the asset information.
Related to GIS
H
Headloss
Reduction in head, or pressure, of the flow due to friction, turbulence or other factors. It depends on the flow velocity, the pipe diameter, the pipe length and a friction factor based on the roughness and Reynolds number of the flow.
Hydrant
A vertical pipe, usually at the side of the road, that is connected to the main water system of a town and can supply water, especially for dealing with fires: a fire hydrant.
Hydraulic head
It represents the mechanical energy per unit weight of the fluid in the system. Knowledge of the hydraulic head distribution in an area allows one to estimate the direction and rate of flow.
Related to Supply source
Hydraulic model
A collection of mathematical equations that give a simple representation of reality. They estimate: flow, water level and velocity in river channels, pipe networks, tidal systems, or floodplains. Hydraulic models are used to study and analyze the water system behavior now and/or in the near future.
I
.inp file
EPANET input file: the native format for EPANET.
Related to EPANET
InfoWater Pro
Engineers use Autodesk InfoWater® Pro software to model water distribution systems in an easy-to-use GIS interface.
Related to GIS, Hydraulic model
Ingest API
A REST API that offers two interaction patterns compatible with each other: bulk and streaming.
- The streaming pattern accepts incremental updates to a dataset as those changes are captured.
- The bulk pattern accepts CSV files in cases where data syncs occur periodically.
Qatium’s ingest API allows the loading of external data to a network for its subsequent visualization and status tracking.
Inlet < > Outlet (asset)
An asset that allows water to flow into and out of the network (e.g. inlet/outlet pipes) or controls the rate at which water flows along and out of it (e.g. inlet/outlet valves). This can refer to any part of the network: zones, DMAs or enclosed systems (tanks, etc.).
Insights & results
Key information that helps solve a problem or improve the state of the network. It can be visualized just by accessing the platform (e.g. water balance, pressures, etc.), or when running scenarios, directly on the main screen as soon as the model has finished running the simulation.
Related to Scenarios
Internet of water
Implementation of technologies based on the Internet of Things (loT) that allow sending and receiving information, linking some of the elements that make up the systems within the water system, and that are connected to the internet, which facilitates interaction with them and the link with autonomous systems or with artificial intelligence.
J
Junction
Points where links (pipes, valves or pumps) join together and where water enters or leaves the network. It is a component that you cannot find in physical networks, but junctions are needed to solve the mathematical graph model of system flows.
L
Labeling
In ArcGIS Pro, it refers specifically to the process of automatically generating and placing descriptive text for features in maps and scenes. A label is a piece of text on the map that is dynamically placed and whose text string is derived from one or more feature attributes.
Related to GIS
Lateral (pipe)
A pipe that connects the interior installation of the building and the corresponding shut-off valve to the distribution network.
Related to Shut-off valve, Main
Loop pipes
A pipe that ends where it starts. Pipeline looping is the practice of designing pipelines with segments run in parallel. This practice increases the pipeline flow capacity without altering the final pressure.
M
Main (pipe)
Arterial and distribution pipes without laterals defined in the model.
Related to Arterial, Distribution, Lateral
Main conditioning
The process of gradually increasing the flow in a pipe to clean its walls while measuring water quality. This is done at stages:
- The water quality needs to settle first before increasing the flow again.
- The watermain is then "conditioned" to run at that higher flow rate, so that, if it's needed for alternative purposes, it can be used immediately without the risk of dirty water.
Related to Water age
Model accuracy
A percentage indicator calculated every hour from the various deviation values of the model. The lower the deviation value, the more accurate the model.
Related to Model deviation
Model deviation
The model deviation indicates the average difference between the sensor value and the model value assigned to the same asset. The smaller the model deviation, the closer the real data and the simulated values will be.
Related to Model accuracy
Model projection
The spatial location of the hydraulic model that generates the map view in Qatium. The user must establish this location through a coordinate system.
MultiPolygon or Polygon geometry or shape
[GIS] Closed shapes that represent areas on a map, ranging from natural features (lakes, forests, etc.), to man-made structures or areas (cities, districts, and property plots).
They are 1 of the 3 types of layers that can be imported in Qatium (as Shapefiles or GeoJSONs), and are categorized as “zones”.
N
Net flow
[Qatium] It represents all the water consumed in a zone including customer demand and leakage. Net flow is calculated as the sum of all the inflows in a zone minus all the outflows.
Related to Water balance, NRW, Readings
Network ID
[Qatium] The network ID is a unique identifier used by Qatium. It’s a long hexadecimal string (UUID) placed in the network URL.
Network levels
Water supply networks can be divided into three levels:
1. Transmission line: large pipes or channels transporting raw water from the source to the water supply treatment plant.
2. Arterial: the largest pipes transporting water from the treatment plant to major areas.
3. Distribution: the remaining network providing water to consumers.
Qatium categorizes all assets in the network as arterial or distribution.
Related to Arterial, Distribution
Node
Location within the water supply system where head, inflow, or outflow is known, and actions or measurements occur. A node can be used to represent things that actually happen over a large physical area but that, for modeling purposes, occur at a single point.
In Qatium, this can be a supply source, tank, pump, valve or junction.
NRW (non-revenue water)
The difference between the volume of water injected into the network and the volume that is finally billed. Water that has been produced and is "lost" before reaching the customer due to:
– Unbilled authorized consumption (firefighting, celebrations, etc.)
– Apparent losses (water theft, metering inaccuracies…)
– Real losses (from transmission/distribution mains or storage facilities)
Related to Water balance, Water efficiency
O
Orientation
An element’s position/direction regarding other elements of the network. More specifically, the orientation depends on another upstream element.
In Qatium, orientation can be inferred or defined by the user during import.
Orientable elements: all assets/elements for which orientation is important for a valid simulation, e.g. PRVs, pumps
Related to Upstream <> Downstream
Owner < > Member (role)
[Qatium] Roles inside the App.
Owner: the creator of the workspace and can manage it, create or upload networks, add members, change their roles or delete them.
Member: can access the workspace, create or upload networks, and work with all existing networks within the workspace.
P
Pressure
It is the capacity of a fluid to store energy and it measures the capacity of water to reach a certain height when it circulates through a pipe.
[Qatium] It refers to the pressure value for a given junction according to the simulation results (the one shown in the tooltips and pressure hexagons).
Pressure gauge / Manómetro
A pressure gauge is tool used to measure the pressure to ensure there are no leaks or pressure changes that would affect the performance of the system.
Related to Pressure
Pressure reducing valve (PRV)
Used to reduce incoming water pressure to a safer constant predetermined downstream level. Depending on the type of valve, the downstream pressure is established by a pressure adjustment setting on the valve or by an external sensor.
Related to Pressure, Regulating valves
Pressure sustaining valve (PSV)
Used to maintain pressure by opening only as much as necessary to maintain the required pressure on its inlet port.
Related to Pressure, Regulating valves
R
Readings
The actual data received from telemetry systems that we incorporate into Qatium. It could be flow from a flow meter, level or pressure from a pressure sensor or the status of an asset (on, off, active, etc.).
Related to Telemetry, Flow meter
Regulating valves
Used to adjust and control the flow rate through a pipe. They provide more precise control and allow the flow rate to be adjusted to different levels, making them ideal for situations where precise regulation is required.
[Qatium] PRV (Pressure Reducing Valve), PSV (Pressure Sustaining Valve), FCV (Flow Control Valve), PBV (Pressure Breaker Valve)
Rezoning
Adjusting the boundaries of network zones. This is usually done to reach a minimum pressure in the network, and it could be part of a planning project or as a response to an emergency or unplanned event.
Related to Zone
Roughness
The resistance to water flow due to the walls’ state of channels and pipes, the sides or the bottom of a channel.
Related to Roughness coefficient
Roughness coefficient
A number that describes how smooth or rough a pipe's surface is. This coefficient is used by engineers (or software) to determine friction losses of fluids moving through the pipe. There are multiple equations used to define and simulate roughness (H-W: Hazen-Williams, C-W: Chezy-Manning, D-W: Darcy-Weisbach).
Related to Roughness
S
SCADA
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are widely used in the water industry to monitor and control critical network infrastructure such as pumping stations, storage tanks and valves.
Scenario
[Qatium] Changes users make in the network to answer “What if…?” questions. These scenarios create different network versions to test the changes applied. Scenarios can be used for network operations and performance, as well as for planning.
Sensor
A device that detects changes in the physical world and can emit signals.
It's usually integrated into a meter to collect information such as water levels, air temperature, etc.; and transmit it to the cloud through a mobile network.
At Qatium, we refer to sensors as IoT devices that measure a specific critical parameter in the network.
Related to Readings, Sensor data, Flow sensor
Sensor data
A generic term that refers to any data collected by sensors and telemetry systems . It's also called live data, real-time data or near real-time data.
In general, live data comes from SCADA systems (the utilities telemetry system) and IoT devices (third-party sensors attached to the network).
Sensor signal
It is the aggregate of physical data emitted by the sensor that can be represented in a curve as the variation of the physical quantity measured by the sensor over time.
Related to Signal mapping, Sensor, Readings
Service level
Minimum required pressure at every customer point in a network, as stipulated by utilities' contractual duties.
Shapefile
A digital vector storage format for storing geographic location and associated attribute information.
Shutdown
[Qatium] Scenario that allows you to see which valves need to operate in order to isolate the selected pipe, as well as the pipes that are impacted by the operation.
E.g.: When a pipe needs to be worked on – e.g. to fix a leak – operators will isolate the pipe by locating valves that surround it and close them, trying to minimize the impact (water quality, pressure, supply interruptions and duration) on customers.
Related to Scenarios
Shut-off valve
Used to regulate the flow through pipes, allowing complete interruption of the water supply when necessary, or adjustment of the flow rate. They are usually installed in strategic locations to isolate specific parts of a network, allowing repairs or replacements without the need to shut off the entire water supply.
[Qatium] TCV (Throttle Control Valve)
Signal mapping
Associate sensor readings to the correspondent asset and asset property.
Related to Readings and live data
Smart metering deployments
Consists of the installation of smart water meters. These have a real-time visual reading and are connected to a network so that they can also send the data to the manager immediately.
Smart water
The inclusion of advanced technologies to achieve automation of processes within the integral water cycle and data analysis to achieve improvements in water services.
Status (asset)
The working state of certain elements (pipes, valves, pumps). Its value can vary depending on the asset and the situation, and it is always shown in the asset information when clicking or hovering over an icon.
Supply source
[Qatium] External sources of water in the network such as tanks or reservoirs, lakes, rivers, groundwater aquifers, etc.
[EPANET] “Reservoir”. Nodes that represent an infinite external source or sink of water to the network. Reservoirs can also serve as water quality source points.
Related to Tank, Hydraulic head
SWMM (Storm Water Management Model)
Created by EPA, it’s the most used simulation model for planning, analysis, and design related to stormwater runoff, combined and sanitary sewers, and other drainage systems.
Synoptic
[Qatium] A work mode with a high-level representation of your network. It represents only the major assets, their performance, and interconnections, reducing the noise and providing a simplified view particularly useful in large networks.
Related to Work modes
T
Tank
Tanks are nodes with storage capacity, where the volume of stored water can vary with time during a simulation.
Telemetry
The automatic measurement and wireless transmission of data from remote sources, through the use of sensors.
Related to Readings
Threshold
Minimum and/or maximum values that can be assigned to an asset during import to receive warnings. When the readings or the simulation exceed the defined threshold values, a warning appears in the App interface, and more information inside the asset details.
Related to Warnings, Readings, Asset
Time-step
The basic time unit in a model simulation. Qatium creates a 24h model starting at 00:00, with a 1h time-step.
Timeline
The graphical representation inside Qatium of a 24-hour period when opening a network, it shows the current moment represented in the model. It is used to see how the network is operating at a certain time or to review historical live data and see past events (e.g. bursts or pipe closures).
Token
A unique identifier used to authenticate a user or application to access an API and must be included in every API request to authorize access to protected resources.
Related to Ingest API, Bearer token
U
Unidirectional flushing
Another flushing method consists of closing valves and opening hydrant(s) in a sequential manner in a particular section or loop, always starting from a clean water source (storage tank, pump station, previously flushed pipe sections…).
Related to Flushing
Upstream < > Downstream
It is used to specify the location of an asset in reference to another asset (e.g.: the tank is downstream of that valve). It can also be used for several assets or areas (e.g.: all the pumps downstream of that area are problematic).
V
Velocity (optimal - non-optimal)
Pipes velocity within a specific range will be considered optimal for flushing. In Qatium, these pipes will be shown in green color and the panel for flushing will indicate whether there are pipes with optimal velocity or not. The current range for optimal velocities is 1.5 m/s - 3 m/s, and anything outside that range is considered non-optimal velocity.
Related to Flushing, Demand Spike, Scenarios
Volume
The space occupied by a fluid. Unlike gasses, the volume of a given amount of liquid hardly changes when it moves. In a hydraulic network, the amount of water supplied in a given time is measured by its volume. The usual unit is the cubic meter (m3) for large quantities, or the liter for smaller quantities.
W
Warnings
Whenever there is a problem with an asset in the network, Qatium will display alerts to let the users know what is happening. For example, a warning may alert the user when an asset value exceeds the established threshold.
Related to Thresholds
Water 4.0
It considers the use of tools within the integral water cycle, such as artificial intelligence, autonomic learning, robotics, Big data, automation, 5G, augmented reality, and new technologies, related to the fourth industrial revolution.
Water age
[Water quality modeling] The time it takes for water to move through a given system or reach a specific point of interest within the system. It is a critical parameter because it helps determine the residence time of water and the extent to which it can be exposed to different pollutants or contaminants. Water age is a general indicator of water quality, with lower water age indicating better water quality.
Water balance
Improving water balance in the network focuses on reducing non-revenue water (NRW). This includes checking each DMA, assessing if there is a peak compared to the usual NRW values, checking the minimum night flow (MNF), and trying to address the issues found keeping the pressure values present at all times.
Water efficiency
[Qatium] The percentage of water that actually gets to customers in a delimited zone where there can be problems with non-revenue water (NRW).
Related to Water balance, NRW
WaterGEMS
A hydraulic modeling application that allows the analysis, design, and optimization of water distribution systems.
Water management model
A generic term that includes water resource management, stormwater management, water supply management, etc. It can be defined as a model - nowadays usually digital - that aims to replicate the behavior of the water in the environment (urban or rural), when water is going through pipes, catchments, etc.
Water supply (system)
The system and processes associated with the provision of water to end users. This includes the collection, treatment, distribution and storage of water. Water supply may come directly from the source of supply or through intermediate storage systems such as tanks or reservoirs.
Work modes
A panel inside the network that allows the user to focus on concrete tasks (e.g. perform a shutdown, flushing, etc.) or on the assets with warnings. Each work mode is a preset especially designed to help the user perform operations in the network easily and quickly.
Workspace
The digital space inside Qatium where the user has their networks to work on. It could be a personal workspace (My networks), or a shared one (any workspace created to have several members working together in the same network).
Z
Zone
An area of the network that makes sense to differentiate from other areas from an operational perspective. They may be used to identify district-metered areas, pressure-metered areas, areas with different timetables for water supply, or any other meaningful purpose.
Related to DMA, DMA sectorization