In this session, we'll discuss how Severn Trent’s £6 billion investment over the next five years will transform the UK water industry. Using digital technology, we're set to enhance efficiency and expedite delivery. We'll discuss the "intelligent client" concept, fostering collaboration with the supply chain, while maintaining data ownership. We'll address the sector’s digital limitations, rooted in traditional practices, and the impending shift to digital solutions that will revolutionize water management. We stand at the brink of a digital revolution, driven by the imperative for operational efficiency, sustainable resource management, and compliance with regulatory demands. We'll confront the skills shortage and low productivity, showing how our digital strategy—powered by collaboration, driven by data, and enabled by Automation, Integration, & Customization—will create an ecosystem where artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous. Discover a future where project constructability, affordability, and performance are guaranteed by design.

Nashville’s once-in-a-generation water plant upgrade is using cloud tools and virtual reality (VR) to set a new standard for how critical facilities are designed. The ambitious project fits a new modern plant into a complex campus, and, notably, will convert a beautiful 105-year-old filter building into an advanced treatment unit. It will not only establish a climate-resilient water supply for Nashville, but it will also honor the historic site with thoughtful architecture and achieve the highest standards in project Sustainable Design. The design was a multi-year collaborative effort between 10 firms. Autodesk Construction Cloud was the cornerstone, with Revit and Civil 3D models brought together daily in a federated Navisworks model. This talk will cover how the live model accessed through Resolve VR empowered all levels of owner staff to engage in project development in ways not otherwise possible—from O&M teams providing frequent detailed input to City officials quickly understanding the site in broad strokes.

Digital Prototypings are transforming the infrastructure and construction industry by bridging the gap between physical and digital realms. Join us at Autodesk University for a dynamic meetup where we’ll dive into the complexities, practical realities, and future of Digital Prototyping technology.
We’ll explore key topics such as how Digital Prototypings differ from other tools like BIM and GIS, the role of AI and real-time data in reshaping digital practices, and their unique applications in sectors like water utilities. We'll also explore how data insights are driving intelligent construction and fostering integrated ecosystems.
Whether you're evaluating the potential of Digital Prototyping technology, seeking to understand its benefits for Infrastructure and Construction, or looking to connect with industry experts over casual networking, this meetup has something for everyone. Hosted by knowledgeable Autodesk employees from our research, product and consulting teams, participants will gain valuable insights, share experiences, and build meaningful connections.
Join us for an engaging conversation on what it takes to bring Digital Prototypings to life and explore the future of construction and infrastructure through the lens of this transformative technology.

In the summer of 2023, Cleveland, Ohio, faced extreme convective storms that caused localized flooding due to intense rainfall overwhelming catch basins. However, a catchment flood model simulation showed no flooding, highlighting the model’s failure to capture surface water. To address catchment model limitations, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) partnered with MIT to develop a regional, 2D, ICM model. This research develops a scalable, data-driven, pluvial flood model using a 2D, rain-on-mesh, ICM hydrodynamic model with detailed urban textures. The ICM model findings accurately replicated observed flood locations. High-resolution model validation is key, supported by advances in sensors, monitoring, and crowd-sourced data (though often underused). NEORSD and the City of Cambridge (Massachusetts) offer rich data sets. This presentation will showcase a novel validation framework integrating remote sensing and real-time data, applied to a city-scale, high-resolution flood model in Cleveland and Cambridge in collaboration with local agencies.

This case study will explore the transformative impact of integrating Autodesk products into water infrastructure projects. We’ll highlight how operational efficiency is enhanced, collaboration is streamlined, quality control is maintained, and Project Delivery is facilitated throughout the project lifecycle. By using Autodesk Construction Cloud (Autodesk Docs, Autodesk Build, AutoCAD Plant 3D, Revit, Navisworks, and ReCap software), the case study will demonstrate practical applications in three pivotal phases: design, construction, and operations and maintenance (O&M). Through two real-world examples, you’ll gain insights into how these tools work together to optimize project outcomes and ensure seamless integration across different stages.

Throughout history, women have pioneered innovations that have shaped the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, laying the foundation for groundbreaking technologies and radical transformations. We’ll explore the powerful impact of women driving change across the industry, and look ahead to the future of how we design and make. Hear from Autodesk Expert Elites and influential product designers at the forefront of transformative technologies. These women have adopted AI-powered generative design solutions. They’re using Digital Prototyping technology to create climate-resilient architecture. And they’re driving the successful integration of cloud-based platforms across large-scale organizations. Whether you're a woman in AEC or an ally, this session will provide actionable insights, inspiring stories, and an opportunity to connect and ask questions with the trailblazers shaping the future of design, construction, and technology.

Designing wastewater treatment plants is becoming increasingly complex, driven by evolving regulations, Sustainable Design goals, and tighter project budgets. This session will explore how large infrastructure firms are rethinking the early design process by integrating generative workflows that automate core engineering tasks, connect design decisions to client goals, and accelerate preliminary planning. Through real-world examples from US water and wastewater projects, including recent PFAS-focused efforts, you’ll learn how conceptual design can be enhanced using data-driven tools embedded in Autodesk platforms. This session will also explore how standardizing and automating this phase improves client engagement, speeds up internal QA/QC, and lays the foundation for stronger design outcomes downstream.

Water infrastructure owners and operators face poor asset information handover due to system misalignment. Could Automation, Integration, & Customization and integrated data enable Digital Prototypings to support operational efficiency, reduce rework and costs, and improve health and safety (H&S)? Learn how GHD successfully used client-focused data exchange and cloud collaboration during the 40MLD upgrade of Wellington Water Limited’s Te Mārua water treatment plant to ease these struggles. Automating the integration of asset information using Autodesk products enabled delivery of the asset register 12 months early—saving NZ$150,000 and 1,400 hours in asset data management. Combining Esri mobile apps and dashboards enhanced as-built quality and reduced site H&S risks. A proof of concept was developed where GeoBIM and Autodesk Docs software were fused to create a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) common data environment (CDE)—the foundation for an operations and maintenance Digital Prototyping. We’ll share valuable lessons on managing evolving data needs and supply chains to demonstrate how connected workflows made Project Delivery more efficient.

Water is essential infrastructure—and designing, modeling, and managing it requires purpose-built tools. In this session, Autodesk product and strategy leaders will share what’s new and what’s next for our water-focused solutions, with a spotlight on how we’re supporting civil engineers and utilities in planning and maintaining water systems. From early-stage design to lifecycle management, get an inside look at how our roadmap is evolving to improve performance, collaboration, and resilience in water infrastructure projects. You'll also see early demos of in-development capabilities and have the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the team.

Aligning Project Delivery across three engineering firms—spanning 5,000+ staff and major sectors like transportation, water, and buildings—is no small feat. This session will share how we’ve built a unified approach to Project Delivery, balancing consistency with flexibility. We’ll explore how governance, culture, and shared frameworks are helping us deliver at scale—while adapting to project and sector-specific needs. A key enabler has been our partnership with Autodesk, who supported us in adopting tools like Autodesk Construction Cloud into our standard workflows. From implementation to integration, Autodesk Construction Cloud is helping us streamline collaboration, enhance data continuity, and improve design coordination. If you’re leading digital strategy across a complex organization—or trying to get teams on the same page—this session will offer practical insights, tested methods, and honest lessons learned.

Thames Water and Stantec in the United Kingdom have developed an innovative methodology to build a long-term investment plan for London’s clean-water network, serving 8 million customers. This work defines how the future London water network should look like using hydraulic modeling and an optimization framework to identify the best value investment options. It handled extensive data from various sources. A strategic network model (InfoWorks WS Pro software) was prepared, incorporating current and future (25 years) supply-and-demand scenarios to identify needs. Optimatics Optimizer tested numerous solution combinations, calculating cost and hydraulic performance to develop the best value plan. This optimization process required the combined effort of Optimizer processing power, hydraulic modeler input, and stakeholder engagement to select and refine investment plans of interest. The session will provide an overview of the approach we took, and present the results and lessons from the above project.

During this session, you’ll learn about the various ways that extreme heat impacts water utilities, from decreased water supply and infrastructure challenges to worker safety concerns and increased costs of service delivery. We’ll explore the potential scale of these impacts and the varying ways that different locations are likely to be impacted. The presenters will then share several strategies for mitigating the impact of extreme heat, including optimized system modeling, predictive analytics, policy updates, and stakeholder outreach. By planning today for a future that is likely to be hotter than the past, we can create more-resilient communities that are ready to take on the heat.

The cities of Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN, are divided by the Red River of the North because of major yearly flooding. To address this, a new six-mile earthen levee system that includes five separate interior drainage systems, five 100-year regional storm water retention basins, and five 5,000 GPM storm water pumping stations was designed. Due to the large scale of project and the issues that arose, Ulteig Engineers asked for the assistance of their current reseller, Managed Design. The issues pertaining to this project were file size, slow drawings, and issues around being able to have more team members help with the project. Managed Design was hired to come in during the project to help identify bottlenecks in the process. What will be shown and discussed are the results and the final product of implementing both composite surfaces and data shortcuts into their design process. You will be able to ask your questions to both the prime civil tech designer on the project and the corresponding application engineer from Managed Design.

Huge volumes of drinking water are lost to background leakage during distribution. This entails large financial and environmental footprints from extraction, transport, treatment, storage, and pumping. While water models usually simplify leakage to behave as fixed demands, InfoWater Pro software’s new modeling capabilities explicitly incorporate the sensitivity of losses to pressure changes. In this session, we will demonstrate how to easily convert a regular distribution model into one with realistic leakage using a new allocation tool. Both hydraulic and asset pipe information (such as age, number of connections, and material) is used to determine realistic allocations of known leakage amounts per zone to individual elements. Moreover, we will explore how a leakage-aware model can lead to detailed spatiotemporal estimates of water loss under different operating scenarios, and lead to precise quantifications of the economic and hydraulic effects of asset replacement and pressure-control programs.

This session will walk through how catchments or watersheds can be automatically generated using a surface model and assigned to drainage networks as part of a concept design in Civil 3D software. Ultimately, with the InfoDrainage/Civil 3D integration tool, we’ll see how we can bring all the data across to InfoDrainage and use its more extensive runoff routing methods and rainfall generation tools to set up and simulate hydrology and accurately size up the drainage network.

Australia, one of the driest continents, faces critical water challenges. The country now looks beyond its dams to desalination plants and recycled water treatment to address this. However, constructing desalination plants traditionally consumes high energy and impacts the environment. This session focuses on how John Holland, an Australian contractor, successfully streamlined its major water infrastructure projects valued at $2.5 billion by implementing a common data environment hosted on Autodesk Construction Cloud. The firm replaced traditional tasks performed using desktop products—such as clash detection, information management, and design reviews—resulting in significant cost and time savings and improved efficiency across the project lifecycle, benefiting all stakeholders. We will share how we drive sustainability results by using building information modeling (BIM) to optimize recycled materials and reduce carbon footprint, ensuring the potential for environmentally friendly practices within the water infrastructure sector.

Come see how Civil 3D software and InfoDrainage integrate to design and optimize your drainage design on any site. We will start off with a story of how Kimley-Horn, the Civil 3D team, and the InfoDrainage team worked together to solve some of the most-complex challenges we all face during design. For instance, we will show you the vast improvements we've made, including new Civil 3D objects, interoperability with Civil 3D, clash detection, and the enormous improvements with flexible reporting. In this session, we'll explore how InfoDrainage transforms drainage design workflows and optimizes stormwater management. Attendees will learn to integrate InfoDrainage into project workflows, enhancing collaboration and streamlining processes. Our expertise will guide participants in using InfoDrainage for time-saving Civil 3D interoperability, cost reduction via design logic switching, improved outcomes with clash detection, and compliance assurance through design auditing and reporting.

Discover how VHB, a leading engineering firm, has transformed stormwater management by utilizing InfoDrainage. Attendees will learn how VHB improved their efficiency by transitioning from multiple software solutions to InfoDrainage, a unified and integrated platform. This session will illustrate the pitfalls of designing drainage systems using isolated drainage design tools and spreadsheets, highlighting the associated data loss and their inability to handle complexities. Through a comprehensive case study, attendees will gain insights into how VHB leveraged InfoDrainage to enhance their drainage design workflows and advance sustainable drainage systems. The presentation will explore the technical features of InfoDrainage, highlighting its sophisticated simulation tools powered by the hydrodynamic formulation of the SWMM engine. These tools are designed for accurate representation of the interactions between various drainage objects to tackle the challenges associated with complex sites.

In this session, we'll walk through an end-to-end cloud-centered workflow on using large point-cloud data for detailed design using ReCap Pro software and the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform. We will share simple tools to prepare surfaces, intelligently decimate large point-cloud data, publish to Autodesk Construction Cloud, and collaboratively extract design elements (like curbs, gutters, median, walls, ADA ramps, driveways, and drainage breaklines) and assets via browser and take them into detailed design technology like Civil 3D software to generate highly accurate surface models. Users can also publish the extracted features and assets to ArcGIS to use the information across the organization. This is a workflow the point cloud industry has been wanting for decades!

The water industry is undergoing a state of rapid change as it faces a $1 trillion global risk of damaging flooding and water shortages that could impact 5 billion people by 2050. It's estimated that 60% of global water utilities will be forced to undergo digital transformation of their infrastructure to adapt to growing risks and meet sustainability demands. Join the Autodesk water team as we explore how digital transformation is reshaping the way the world manages water and water infrastructure. Through the lens of Autodesk's desktop hydraulic modeling products—InfoWorks ICM, InfoDrainage, InfoWater Pro, and InfoWorks WS Pro—we'll explore practical examples of how rapidly advancing digital technology is helping transform the workflows of industry stakeholders, including utilities, consultants, engineers, water modelers, and others.