Affinity Water, the UK's largest water-only supplier, has teamed up with JBA Consulting to transform the way water companies monitor drinking water assets, dramatically reducing the risk of pollution incidents in groundwater catchments.
What is JSat?
Working in close collaboration with Affinity Water, JBA Consulting has designed and developed JSat, JBA's Spectral Analysis Tool. A cutting-edge technology that now supports a more proactive management of drinking water quality. JSat is a powerful digital tool for rapidly detecting land surface changes and transforming the way water companies can monitor, identify and proactively manage risks of pollution to groundwater drinking water sources. The system uses a series of proprietary innovations to detect changes in land use through a machine learning-enabled analysis of satellite images.
Reducing cost, resources and carbon emissions
JSat now actively monitors over 80 Source Protection Zones (SPZs) with over 2 million reporting units, providing Red-Amber-Green scoring of risks around SPZs across all of Affinity Water’s supply areas.
This systematic monitoring of satellite data for the detection of land use changes not only helps in protecting drinking water from pollution but also reduces costs, resources and carbon emissions from the alternative monitoring process.
Dr John Bevington, Technical Director at JBA Consulting, emphasises the collaborative nature of JSat's development:
“Building on our relationship with Affinity Water and through close collaboration with their team, we were able to design and develop this groundbreaking technology that now supports a more proactive management of drinking water quality. JSat’s systematic monitoring has already led to new insights in land management practices in protected areas that would otherwise have remained unknown. Although it’s still early days, JSat is already delivering benefits in terms of proactive resource prioritisation and reduction of carbon emissions.”
Laurence Chalk,
Affinity Water
Catchment Adviser,
added:
“It has been exciting to see this system develop over the past couple of years with all the great input from my colleagues alongside the brilliant talents of JBA to make sense of our requirements and form them into this fantastic tool. A system such as this has been on the wish list for a while, and it has been a joy to start making use of it and realise the benefits. I’m really looking forward to its continued development.”
This initiative is a clear indication of the future direction of water management — one that embraces technological innovation and collaborative problem-solving to protect natural resources. As JSat technology rolls out, it paves the way for further advancements in the industry, inspiring a new era of environmental protection and sustainable water use.
Contact John Bevington for more information about JSat.
Innovation through JBA Labs
JSat harnesses remote sensing, data science and software development expertise from across JBA. Machine Learning approaches applied to satellite Earth Observation technology allows us to capture data about locations and assets remotely - reducing the time, cost and carbon-footprint that would be associated with in-person data capture. Presenting this information through an intuitive web-GIS dashboard allows Affinity Water to quickly identify locations for further investigation. This also aids with tracking of decision making and management of potential pollution risks in groundwater catchments.
Through JBA Labs we’re accelerating the pace, the efficiency and the scale at which we innovate - delivering for our clients, our business and our people. With a dedicated team of innovation specialists, JBA Labs is here to nurture and support every stage of innovation - from scoping out ideas right through to commercialisation. We help deliver projects at any scale, from creating more efficient processes to developing game-changing innovations.
