Hera’s “innovation” was the protagonist at the Water Distribution System Analysis Conference At the Water Distribution System Analysis water distribution which was held in South Africa, Hera, the only Italian water service operator present, presented some of the more innovative projects for improved management of water systems which are applied to the Ferrara water network: "A combination of criticality analyses and failure rates for planning interventions on the Hera Ferrara water distribution network,” and the more recent work “ Criticality Analyses,” which aims to define the investment optimisation criterion through a system applied by major industrial groups to large projects and infrastructures applied for the first time to water distribution networks.