Originally constructed in 1878, Zagreb’s water supply system is one of the oldest fully functioning water networks in the world. Since it was established, the population of the city has grown from 11,150 to more than 900,000. Because water losses grew significantly over the past two decades and sharply worsened after the occurrence of earthquakes in 2020, the system needed a new development plan. Hidroing was tasked with developing a GIS system with a hydraulic model but soon determined that they needed to develop one of the largest digital twins in eastern Europe.

After weighing options, Hidroing sought to combine all network analyses into a digital twin with Bentley applications. After modeling 3,000 measurement points and 3,500 kilometers of pipe, they created and calibrated a hydraulic model. During calibration alone, they pinpointed over 50 actions to reduce water loss. They finalized the hydraulic model in just 20 months instead of the expected 36 months.