Infrastructure design automation for drinking water

Surface-Water Treatment Design: Confident Decisions from Day One

Surface-water treatment is becoming increasingly complex — driven by higher organics, algae blooms, seasonal variability, and tightening regulatory limits. Traditional feasibility studies take weeks or months, and early planning decisions are still made using disconnected tools that slow iteration and introduce risk.

Built on generative engineering, TDG provides a chemistry-aware, traceable way for utilities and consultants to evaluate complete surface-water treatment trains, helping teams make confident, defensible decisions much earlier in the project lifecycle.

Why the industry needs change

The Challenge

Utilities and engineering firms face mounting pressure: 

Source-water complexity continues to rise
Regulations tighten and funding cycles slow projects
Feasibility studies and redesigns consume months
Staffing shortages limit engineering capacity
Early decisions rely on spreadsheets and tribal knowledge

The result: delayed projects, costly rework, and uncertainty early in planning. The front end of water infrastructure design remains the most fragmented stage of the lifecycle. Yet it defines project cost, timeline, and long-term sustainability.

wastewater treatment works
weatment plant

Drinking-Water Treatment Design

A Better Way to Begin Drinking-Water Design 

TDG standardizes and automates early-stage design, ensuring every decision is grounded in traceable engineering data — not disconnected calculations. 

Design with confidence from the start. 

Real-time chemistry validation across solids, alkalinity, and contaminant behavior
Standards-driven defaults aligned with utility, regional, or national specifications 
Regulator-ready outputs including layouts, schematics, BIM models, and documentation 
Consistent, auditable inputs that reduce rework downstream 

TDG amplifies engineering expertise, allowing teams to focus on analysis instead of rebuilding spreadsheets. 

Explore How TDG Works

Surface-Water Treatment Systems

What TDG Generates

TDG now supports the full set of conventional surface-water treatment steps: 

pH adjustment 
Chemical conditioning 
Coagulation 
Flocculation 
Granular media filtration 
(Sedimentation coming soon) 

Each run is chemistry-aware and validated in real time, giving engineers visibility into performance, cost, and footprint as they iterate. 

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Where This Capability Delivers Impact 

Faster Feasibility → Faster Funding 

Generate review-ready designs in a single working session. 

Upgrades for Aging or Non-Compliant Facilities 

Quickly evaluate alternative treatment trains and upgrade paths. 

Transitions to Surface Sources 

Understand the cost and performance implications of shifting away from stressed groundwater. 

Capacity Expansion & Resilience Planning 

Compare multiple configurations early and reduce late-stage rework. 

Scaling Limited Engineering Resources 

Capture institutional knowledge in reusable templates that multiply capacity. 

Drinking-Water Roadmap

A Foundation For Complete Drinking-Water Design

Surface Water marks a major milestone in TDG’s evolution into a complete drinking-water design environment. Upcoming capabilities include: 

Sedimentation 
Groundwater treatment (Fe/Mn removal, aeration, softening) 
UF/MF 
RO/NF 
GAC + Ion Exchange

Together, these capabilities support end-to-end drinking-water design within a unified, governed platform.These will form a unified platform supporting end-to-end drinking-water treatment design.

Explore Drinking Water Design

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Ready to See it in action?

TDG gives teams a clearer, more defensible way to begin drinking-water design — with chemistry awareness, transparent calculation logic, and review-ready outputs for every treatment scenario.

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More than 360M people in over 70 countries have been impacted by Transcend designs

Let’s design better infrastructure – start your journey today or book a demo through the links on the right.