ASTERRA Launches MasterPlan for Water Utility Asset Management

ASTERRA, the global leader of satellite-based actionable data for water utilities, announced the launch of its latest product, MasterPlan. This comes only one week after receiving a major investment of $6M by Beringea, as part of ASTERRA’s strategy to release multiple products into infrastructure verticals in 2021. An evolution of the same technology used to find leaks underground using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors, MasterPlan provides actionable insights to utility asset management plans.

Based on five years and thousands of validated ASTERRA leak location points of interest, the new MasterPlan algorithm assesses the deficiency of an entire pipe system using multiple SAR images taken months apart. The trained algorithm scores pipe segments based on observed non-surfacing leaks and provides a single GIS dataset of pipes scored from one to five (level of deficiency observed) for easy input into any GIS system or asset planning model.

In times of limited budget and resources, MasterPlan gives water utilities a look beneath the ground for decisions on future repair or replacement. ASTERRA worked with industry leaders in asset management modeling to seamlessly integrate the dataset into their risk model calculations. The GIS format of MasterPlan allows it to be read into any GIS or GIS-based software with ease.

“Leveraging a sensor-based approach, we have been able to take our algorithm to the next level and provide analytics for pipe deficiency. We are pleased to provide this product as a model input for next generation asset planning,” stated James Perry, V.P. of Business Development North America for ASTERRA.

MasterPlan is an actual, not predictive, measurement of non-surfacing pipe leaks, making it unique in the industry of asset management modeling data sets where most are based on pipe attributes (such as age and material) or history (such as location and number of breaks). MasterPlan is available to current customers of ASTERRA’s pipe leak detection service and new customers alike.