How does a Smart Water city work?

The unifying traits of all Smart City innovations are that they conserve energy and resources, while simultaneously delivering a smoother and more streamlined service to residents.

This is no different for smart innovations in the water board. But how does this work?

SMART WATER – SMART CONSUMPTION

Running water, hot or cold, on demand whenever we want it is one of the basic tenets of modern life in the developed world. We are so used to it that we very much take it for granted. Despite this, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that half of the world’s population will be living in water stressed areas by 2025. With this in mind it is crucial that we do what we can to conserve clean water and use all the tools at our disposal to do so.

Have you ever thought about how much energy it takes to get that water to our taps? How can we use smart technology to revolutionise and reduce our water consumption without compromising on lifestyle?

WATER MANAGEMENT FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Smart Water management is a crucial foundational stone of any Smart City. Many large cities have aging water infrastructures that have been in place for over 100 years, and these need to be updated. The landscape of the city has likely changed a lot since the infrastructure was first put in place so it is very likely that the old system is no longer fit for purpose, meaning that simple maintenance may not be good enough anymore. The system will need to be upgraded and fitted with IoT technologies, allowing the water system to come online and communicate.

Smart Water systems are just like any other smart system, like energy or transport, in that they use IoT enables sensors and devices to collect real time data. Over time this allows analysts to build up a picture of the usage of the system, and allows for optimisation of resource and facilities, early detection of leaks and issues and predictive maintenance, all of which contributes to informed decision making when it comes to water management.

Smart sensors can detect leaks immediately and alert engineers to take action, reducing water waste and engineers time in searching for the leak. This could save a huge amount of time and money. It is estimated that in Sweden around 20% of all water is lost in pipeline leaks, presenting a huge potential for cost saving.

This data can have a knock-on effect on other areas of your Smart City. For example, water management teams will be able to consult their predictive management technology for information on flooding, specifically where might flood and when it might happen. This information can then be shared with transport and housing departments, so that they can act before the floodwater causes any damage and can communicate with travellers to let them know where changes to transport services will be necessary,
This is just one small example of how predictive technologies will have an enormous impact on Smart Cities in the future, saving time, money and potentially lives.

SMART MANAGEMENT FOR CONSUMERS

As well as these grander aspirations, Smart Water technology is helping consumers to make smarter day to day decisions. Consumers can monitor their usage remotely through apps, allowing them to manage things like leaks in their own houses or peaks for water wastage in their home. This can help people make small decisions every day to use water more sustainably, based on the data they are seeing from their own home. This not only helps the environment but cuts their own costs.

Upgrading our water systems to include smart technology will help us on a micro and macro level to become more efficient and more mindful of our consumption. Lowering costs for governments and for consumers.

For more information on our Smart City solutions, contact us here.