About our Sessions

In 2019, Sugar Land earned national recognition for the Best Tasting Water in the U.S., a testament to our commitment to quality. But ensuring great-tasting water for years to come requires more than purification. It demands an infrastructure that’s forward-thinking, efficient, and resilient in the face of aging assets and a growing community.

To protect that legacy and continue delivering high-quality service, the City of Sugar Land is pioneering a new approach to water main management that blends engineering expertise with Artificial Intelligence (AI). By analyzing patterns in break history, pipe conditions, and environmental context, we can anticipate infrastructure needs before failures happen, prioritizing repairs and investments with data-informed confidence.
The result? A smarter, more sustainable way to extend asset life, reduce service disruptions, and make every dollar count. This session will explore how Sugar Land turned a winning water reputation into a model of innovation, demonstrating how cities of any size can use predictive tools to build stronger public trust, streamline capital planning, and deliver lasting value.

We will cover the procedures and protocols setup in place from the beginning that ensured project success. Examples include a clear and defined schedule of values, adherence to the chain of command, and constant field presence of all levels of management to be able to quickly identify and resolve problems before they exacerbate. We have automated geotechnical instrumentation to provide real time settlement alerts from tunneling operations. We take GPS readings of every pipe laid and correlate it to the lay schedule and project drawings and address deviations in alignment. All pipe joints are welded and inspected and reported. All of this information is tracked and stored in the program’s project information system and any necessary information is able to be quickly retrieved.