Smart Water Management (SWM) refers to the use of technology, such as sensors, data analytics, and automation, to improve the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of water systems.
Smart Water Management can include monitoring and managing water resources, distribution networks, and infrastructure, as well as reducing water waste and improving water quality. The goal of smart water management is to optimize the use of water resources and improve the overall performance of water systems.
Governments worldwide are incorporating smart concepts into their urban, regional, and national agendas, causing SWM to gain ever more attention.
Smart Water Management systems has many possible applications in water management, including solutions for floods, droughts, pressure and flow issues, leaks, efficient irrigation, water quality, quantity, and many other problems.
Real-time solutions can be deployed to address existing water management difficulties by integrating SWM infrastructure, such as sensors, GIS and satellite mapping, monitors, smart meters, and other data exchange tools.
How do Smart Water Management Systems Work?
Microcontrollers and sensors—such as flow, ultrasonic, temperature, conductivity, salinity, pressure, humidity, or luminosity—are mounted on pipes or pumps. These devices continuously monitor water levels, flow, temperature, and quality.
Sensor-generated data and message alerts are delivered to a cloud server through the Internet. They are processed, sometimes with artificial intelligence (AI), and then relayed to a computer for user consultation.
The system may then manage and regulate the use of water resources and their quality, making it easier to maintain the standard machinery.
Why Do We Need Smart Water Management?
Our Earth is 70% covered in water. If you believe this figure is comforting and wonder why we should worry about such a plentiful resource, rethink. The problem of water scarcity is getting worse.
By 2025, it will directly impact approximately 20% of the world’s population, according to multiple UN reports. One in four children globally will reside in extremely high water stress locations by 2040. Developing nations are not the only ones affected by this.
Freshwater, which we use to bathe, cultivate our veggies, cook, and drink, is exceedingly scarce. Only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, and two-thirds of that is either frozen in glaciers or is otherwise unusable. Numerous NGOs estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to freshwater and that 2.7 billion experience water scarcity for at least a month of the year.
The leading causes of this are climate change and a population increase. Still, there are other concerns, including deteriorating infrastructure and distribution networks, pollution, armed conflict, overburdened water systems, and ineffective management of water resources.
Additionally, when there is a lack of water, sewage systems might malfunction, and the risk of catching diseases like typhoid fever, cholera, and other water-borne disorders increases. The world’s ecosystems are in trouble. Additionally, the cost of water is rising, which indirectly impacts the economies of the various nations.
The Internet of Things has the potential to alleviate this concerning picture. Smart Water Monitoring and Management Systems based on sensors, big data, and AI technologies can provide water utility operators, farmers, and businesses with the ability to measure, monitor, and regulate their water distribution networks and the water quality provided. Less consumption, less waste, and better water quality management can significantly increase water conservation.
What Are The Three Main Components Of Smart Water Management?
Connecting smart devices, speedy networks, and digital solutions are critical for smart water management. Water utilities can accurately diagnose system issues using these three components.
Additionally, they make it possible for utilities to switch from pricey emergency interventions like infrastructure repairs and flood management to data-driven water quality warnings or preventative maintenance.
High-Tech Equipment
Pumps, mixers, water management technologies, and sensors that can self-optimize are examples of tech advanced equipment. As a result, water supply management bodies can spend less time and effort in maintaining and monitoring their machinery.
Smart Networks
Smart networks collect data from multiple pieces of equipment to enable real-time, reactive system management. It makes it possible for water managers to continuously and remotely monitor operations.
Digital Solutions
Digital solutions integrate real-time data from equipment with algorithms to provide proactive system management. With the use of this, water managers may stop sewage and stormwater overflows, carry out preventative maintenance, and assess the state of their assets.
What Is Smart Water Metering?
Smart water metering enables utilities to collect data more quickly and efficiently. According to IHS Markit, nearly fifty million smart water meters will be shipped globally in 2023.
AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) collects flow data at the point of usage and throughout a distribution system. This information can be utilized to spot changes in how the system operates or how a resident uses water, which may point to the presence of a leak. Similar to the DROP Protection Valve, which can do that and much more.
A resident can also receive a water use report that includes the data collected at the point of use to see how water-efficient they are compared to their neighbors or other customers. The utility might utilize the information to improve pressure zones across the drinking water network.
What Makes Smart Water So Unique?
The term “smart water” is a movement within the water sector that uses innovative software, hardware, smart technology, and key metric analytics to assist wastewater utilities in identifying and resolving issues through automation, data collection, and data analysis.
According to WEF, smart water could solve problems, including leak detection, energy efficiency, water quality improvements, and more.
An end-to-end system establishes a communication network between the meters and the platform hub is known as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) or a smart water meter. Customers are then supplied the information gathered through this communication network to establish transparency and generate accurate invoices. The residents’ water consumption knowledge can be increased using this high-resolution data.
Because customers know where water must be conserved, this method produces the best outcomes. These smart meters are crucial in effectively managing the local community’s water supply.
How Does Smart Water System Benefit Residential Areas?
The use of smart meters in residential settings reduces resource usage over the long term. These days, integrating a smart water solution (like DROP) into the home network offers enormous advantages to both individuals and the environment. The following are the advantages of using an IoT-based water system:
- Detecting pipe leaks and breaks and automatically shutting off the water.
- Promoting the use of energy-efficient and intelligent equipment with water use monitoring.
- Identifying performance areas where remedial action is required, like running toilets.
Benefits Of Smart Water Management Systems
Here are five specific advantages of smart water management systems and practices and how they can address the escalating water scarcity issues.
Improving Water System Efficiency
Smart water systems collect, treat, distribute, and recycle water. These frequently underground-installed systems tend to leak, freeze, or fail. In today’s world, infrastructures use these systems extensively.
The Internet of Things (IoT) can help with maintenance prediction and prevent leakage, breakage, and equipment downtime by monitoring the flow, pressure, temperature, moisture, the time difference between points, and other factors directly within the systems.
Water Quality Monitoring: Fighting Pollution and Disease
Manufacturing and other human activity can pollute rivers and groundwater tables. Sensors and IoT technologies for real-time control and monitoring can assist in monitoring and preventing pollution and improving water quality.
AI-based software and IoT systems are deployed to collect the standard metrics for monitoring the water quality, including pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), which includes oxygen, Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP), and Temperature of various types of water.
Machine learning algorithms can train the devices to anticipate water quality, monitor the performance of a sanitizing agent, and alter the water treatment plan accordingly.
Raise Awareness Of Domestic Water Use
Many houses have wastewater, but they have no idea of ways that could reduce this water waste. Some utility companies have now installed smart meters that allow them to monitor and bill usage quickly and remotely.
Additionally, the information is easily accessible to end users, which is a significant incentive. Individual consumers can save money by reducing their water bills and preserving of daily water supply.
Worldwide Supply of Running Water Using Innovative Solutions
Efficiency in delivery is only one aspect of managing water. It’s crucial to deliver it to everyone at times. Many individuals in developing countries lack convenient access to flowing water.
Infrastructures for water utilities suffer from a lack of investment, a shortage of public water stations, and inconsistent delivery services. Chlorine pills are pricey and unreliable. Therefore, obtaining water can be difficult for those with irregular or poor salaries.
Streamlining Water-Intensive Industry Waste
Large amounts of water are used in manufacturing, agriculture, or the creation of electricity. Farming consumes 70% of all water.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the same industry is responsible for wasting 60% of that water.
Growing seasons are getting hotter and drier, which puts producers in tension with the weather’s increasing irregular behavior.
Farmers may reduce waste while maintaining soil health, enhancing water conservation, and increasing crop output with the use of real-time water metering and other applications, such as smart irrigation systems or agricultural water management systems:
- Data on temperature, humidity, and water flow obtained by IoT devices can be used to assess the effects of particular treatment operations and train machines to track treatment procedures.
- One can determine the amount of fertilizer and water needed in a field by analyzing the data obtained from soil and light sensors.
What Issues Can Smart Water Management Resolve?
The US Water Alliance lists several issues that smart water may solve for towns, including:
- Upkeep and expansion of water infrastructure
- Leaks in water distribution systems
- Rising energy costs
- Customer-affordable rates
- Emerging water pollutants
The Bottom Line – Who Benefits From Smart Water?
Smart water is advantageous to all. Utilities can acquire systems that enable them to concentrate operating costs on other crucial areas. Manufacturers can create systems for the market by using data to show what works and what doesn’t.
Engineers have the chance to provide better service to their clients, and users of a smart water network will have a greater understanding of how much water they are using.
Water equity, water access, and water affordability are all integrally tied to smart water technology, which can be used to address the issues and difficulties experienced by vulnerable groups. Devices may help those areas receive clean, inexpensive water by revealing water use patterns, local pipe problems, and operational inefficiencies.
With DROP products, you can make the impact directly in your home. Read more about us here.
Sources:
- https://www.saftbatteries.com/energizing-iot/smart-water-management-5-innovative-solutions-water-scarcity-offered-iot
- https://development.asia/explainer/what-smart-water-management
- https://www.wwdmag.com/editorial-topical/what-is-articles/article/10939511/what-is-smart-water-technology
- https://www.xylem.com/en-th/making-waves/commercial-buildings/what-is-smart-water-management/
