Largest Cities in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Switch to MWH Soft Advanced Geospatial Technology

ArcGIS-Centric Modeling Technology to Support Comprehensive Water and Wastewater Systems Planning for Riyadh and Jeddah


Broomfield, Colorado USA, May 2008 — MWH Soft, a leading global provider of environmental and water resources applications software, today announced that following a competitive review, the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have chosen MWH Soft’s industry-leading InfoWater Suite and InfoSewer Pro Suite software to supplant their existing modeling and design solutions. Among the reasons cited for the decision were the software’s many powerful tools, comprehensive functionality, speed, ease of use, and seamless ArcGIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA) integration.

Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom’s largest city, has a population of 4.6 million, an average potable water supply of 1,418,000 m3/day, and a wastewater treatment capacity of 612,000 m3/day. The city operates and maintains a complex hydraulic infrastructure system comprising 500 km of water transmission and 9,700 km of distribution mains, along with 3,000 km (plus 4,000 km under construction or planned) of sewer mains. Jeddah, the Kingdom’s second-largest city, has a population of 2.9 million, an average potable water supply of 634,000 m3/day, and a wastewater treatment capacity of 274,000 m3/day. Its hydraulic infrastructure system consists of 5,258 km of distribution mains and 1,234 km of sewer mains. MWH Soft programs will be used to develop detailed, accurate models of water distribution and sewer collection systems in both municipalities. The models will be used to optimize capital planning and determine cost-effective system expansion and improvement strategies aimed at accommodating rapid population growth.

“Network modeling is one of the most powerful and viable means of developing sound, cost-effective and reliable solutions for managing large, complex water and wastewater infrastructures — and MWH Soft continues to lead the industry in this field,” said Adel AbouJaoude, Ph.D, Associate and Head of Environmental Engineering Division at Khatib & Alami (K&A), a leading engineering and utility solutions provider. “The company’s superior ArcGIS-centric solutions are far and away the easiest, most powerful engineering GIS modeling and design software we’ve seen or used. They also offer the best value in terms of features and functions. MWH Soft products make master planning fast, easy, cost-effective, and accurate, giving us more power to improve operations, performance and integrity in our clients’ existing systems by correcting deficiencies, and to plan the new facilities they need to accommodate rapid growth. Our partnership with MWH Soft will play a critical role in enabling us to reach all these goals.”

With direct support to geodatabases, the innovative network modeling and design technology of the MWH Soft geospatial water and sewer software family addresses every facet of utility infrastructure management, operation, and protection — delivering the highest rate of return in the industry. Drawing on the most advanced hydraulic and water quality simulation and geospatial analysis technologies, the software effortlessly reads GIS datasets, corrects network topology problems and data flaws, extracts pertinent modeling information, and reliably constructs credible network models with astounding speed. Once models have been established, users can easily run and simulate various conditions, pinpoint system deficiencies, and determine the most cost-effective physical and operational improvements to achieve optimum performance and regulatory compliance while improving community relations.

Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D, MWH Soft’s President and COO, said, “We are deeply honored to expand our relationship with the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah by supporting their vital mission with world-class engineering GIS modeling, design and optimization solutions. The adoption of our products by these top cities in the Middle East is a powerful indicator of the value they deliver to our customers in this water-scarce environment. We’re proud that the majority of the largest and most progressive municipalities in this vital region is now looking to us for help in meeting corporate strategic goals, raising quality standards, improving overall performance and reliability, and forging closer ties with customers at maximum cost savings.”