Smart Cities - Mott MacDonald

Innovation is GREAT - Australia & New Zealand > Smart Cities > Case Studies

UK engineering firm harnesses power of data to keep Auckland swimmers safe

Country: New Zealand

A UK-headquartered engineering firm that is leading the way in smart city data management has chosen New Zealand as the home of its APAC digital division.

UK headquartered Mott MacDonald, a global engineering, management and development consultancy, made the move after successfully delivering a smart infrastructure project with Auckland Council.

The project has since been commercialised for sale to councils and authorities in Australia, North America and beyond. Mott MacDonald was recruited by Auckland Council to help address the region’s serious problem with waste water pollution at its beaches.

Tasked with creating a system that could provide real-time monitoring of water quality, they worked with partners to develop the ‘Safeswim’ app. Using the connectivity provided by Mott MacDonald’s own cutting-edge cloud-based analytics platform, ‘Moata’, Safeswim provides the public with accurate and timely updates on where it is safe to swim.

The project has led to Mott MacDonald selecting Auckland’s Grid AKL as the home of its digital delivery business in APAC, adding to its existing ‘digital hubs’ in Washington DC and London. The hub will centralise Mott MacDonald’s engineering, management and development skills base in APAC to support its smart infrastructure and digital delivery business across New Zealand and the wider APAC area.

Safeswim is unique in terms of the size of the project and scale of data it collects. It uses information gathered from 10 sources, such as weather and tide, to generate data that is then analysed by Moata to give an accurate picture of the water quality at Auckland’s beaches and rivers.

At its peak, Safeswim processes three times more data in a day than UPS does co-ordinating the delivery of 22million packages.

The pollution information gathered from the programme has resulted in Auckland’s residents voting to increase taxes to address the issue.

Auckland Council will receive $400 million in additional funding targeting water quality improvement works.

A reputation for success

In the last five years Mott MacDonald has won 500 industry awards and is among the top ranked firms published by leading industry titles Engineering News Record and New Civil Engineer.

The employee-owned business was founded through a merger of Mott, Hay and Anderson, and Sir M MacDonald & Partners in 1989. The two businesses were involved in some of the largest and most complicated infrastructure projects in the world, including the Channel Tunnel, London Underground and Aswan Dam.

Some of Mott MacDonald’s notable projects in APAC include the Delhi Metro, Sydney and Auckland Airports, the Adelaide Oval and the City Rail Link in Auckland.

Mott MacDonald has been supported by the Department for International Trade (DIT) in New Zealand, which provided the business with key opportunities to engage and network with key decision-makers and influencers, including Auckland Council.

Shaun Barrett, the NZ General Manager at Mott MacDonald New Zealand, said: “Mott MacDonald NZ has grown from just two staff in 2011 to over 200 in 2020. This is thanks to organic growth driven by winning a number of significant projects in New Zealand and the acquisition of AWT a local specialist water technology firm.

"DIT has been a key supporter of Mott MacDonald’s success in Australia and New Zealand. Using its expansive network, it has helped us to connect with key market contacts and be involved in important industry events and trade missions that have been invaluable in giving our work visibility with potential customers."

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said: “Safeswim is an example of smart infrastructure being used to make our city world class. I welcome Mott MacDonald establishing a technology hub at Grid AKL to expand its smart infrastructure business in Asia Pacific.

"This partnership is a fantastic opportunity to work with a global digital leader to improve services to Auckland residents and find solutions to pressing environmental and infrastructure issues.“

The UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) helps connect international buyers with UK goods and services to meet their needs, supports overseas companies to locate and grow in the UK, drives both inward and outward investment, negotiates market access and trade deals, and champions free trade.