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DeKalb Watershed unveils Kahua PMIS to manage $4.27 billion CIP, plans AI integration
Summary
Watershed managers presented Kahua, a centralized project-management system that will track budgets, pay applications, inspections and complaints across the county's water and sewer CIP and said Kahua plans to add an embedded AI assistant (Noah Assist).
DeKalb County's Department of Watershed Management briefed commissioners on a new project-management information system called Kahua that the department will use to centralize and manage its $4.27 billion capital improvement program.
An assistant director for Watershed Management described Kahua as "a fully integrated platform" that connects approved CIP budgets, contract values, field inspectors' reports and invoice/pay-application workflows into live dashboards. Presenters said Kahua will allow leaders to roll up to program-level analytics, see outstanding invoices and issues, and inspect construction progress with photos and daily reports.
Rasheeda Oliver, the DWM project manager on the rollout, said the system includes a risk-register app so project teams can document probability, impact and mitigation plans with an owner assigned to each risk. Oliver told the committee Kahua's community-engagement app will let staff record outreach activities and a complaint log for each project so leadership can verify notifications (news releases, Nextdoor, door hangers) and document resident feedback.
Paige Williams of AECOM demonstrated milestone scheduling and analytics dashboards and said future modules — capital planning and cash-flow forecasting — will be added once sufficient data are in the system. On AI, Williams and other presenters said Kahua is developing an embedded assistant (Noah Assist) that would guide users through tasks such as creating RFIs and locating projects; staff are coordinating with the county IT team and an AI policy is nearing internal review.
Commissioners asked how complaints submitted by email should be routed; staff said project managers currently load emailed complaints into Kahua so they appear in the complaint log. Commissioners requested clear PIO assignments per project and an accessible map of projects and outreach coverage.
The committee took no vote to adopt Kahua at this meeting but accepted the presentation and asked staff to provide additional materials, including demonstration dashboards and a schedule for rolling on future modules and AI integration.
