Wallingford Software’s French CS User Conference biggest and best yet

The third Wallingford Software InfoWorks CS user day to be held in Paris took place on 18 May, was judged to be the best yet in terms of both quantity and quality.

Thirty users, from authorities and consultancies in France and Wallonia, met on a boat on the river Seine to discuss the main themes of the day: urban hydrology - runoff and groundwater infiltration; quality modeling regulation; radar rainfall data; Open MI principles; the interface between river and sewer modeling; real-time control of pumping stations; and sewer system storage.

The conference opened with a preview of the soon to be released  version 7.5 of InfoWorks CS, which has a powerful capability to accurately model urban overland flooding, greater GIS functionality, and new facilities for editing data and graph management.

Gilbert Joncheere, manager of Wallingford Benelux, demonstrated InfoNet, which is an asset and data management system purpose-built for sewer networks and water supply systems.

The excellent user case studies presented included:

• A particularly well-received paper given by Michel Ruszniewski of Setude on behalf of the Hautes de Seine departement, looking at the effect on the wastewater network of major flooding on the river Seine.

• Emmanuel Henry of the Henri Tudor Research Centre in Luxemburg, presenting on the challenges of modeling a large combined sewer network in a rural area with 23 villages, developing control strategies to reduce CSO discharges into local watercourses.

There were also a number of seminar sessions, hosted by senior support engineer for wastewater products, Mike Reeves, which focused on particular aspects of InfoWorks CS.

The Wallingford Software Sales Manager for France, Rene Dupas, says: “With our user base growing fast, there is increased value in meeting up to exchange knowledge and share skills. All attendees found the informal side of the conference just as useful as the formal sessions.  With the ongoing success of Wallingford Software in France we expect even more attendees next year, and hope to find another great new location for more excellent presentations and discussions.”