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Table of Contents
1. Water: Availability, Projected Need, and Related Concerns
3. Monitoring
4. Accounting
5. Optimizing
6. Planning
7. Control
9. Conclusion
10
11. References
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optimizing public water delivery systems. Solutions built around IT can not only scale with the water delivery system
size but also keep pace with its operational dynamics. IT offers a way to encapsulate industry-wide best practices so
that they can be replicated across different water delivery systems even by less experienced personnel to reap greater
benefits. Further, IT also brings with it the experience of standardizing and securing distributed networked systems.
Figure 1: Regions of the world with physical and economic water scarcity
Sewage removal: The waste water from consumers is again collected through a pipeline network parallel to the
water supply network. This network typically accumulates waste through gravity lines to collection points, from
which the sewage is pumped to treatment plants, where it gets treated and discharged into water bodies. The
recognition that potable water is not required for all purposes has led to multiple levels of treatment of sewage that
can produce water of lesser (non-potable) quality [USEPA2]. In some municipalities such as Los Angeles and Sydney,
this lesser quality water is supplied back to the consumers through separate pipelines for non human consumption
(e.g., for irrigation of lawns).
Given that water delivery systems have several stages, optimizing these systems would imply optimizing one or more
of the constituent stages. The actual optimization itself can be carried out by adopting any of the well-known
frameworks available in the literature for making business processes more efficient. One such framework is the
DMAIC framework [DMAIC] wherein a business process is viewed from the following perspectives to enable efficient
operations: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This framework is part of the well-known Six Sigma
optimization, which is used across a variety of domains. The framework stands for the following: Define the problem,
Measure key aspects of it, Analyze the data available, Improve or optimize the current process, and finally Control the
future development. In the context of water delivery systems these five perspectives can be translated as Plan,
Monitor, Account, Improve, and Control. These perspectives are not mutually orthogonal but can feed into one
another. In the rest of this report, we discuss how the different stages of a water delivery system can be optimized
under each of the DMAIC perspectives using IT. Specifically, we consider these perspectives in the increasing order of
their acceptance by utilities and the ease of implementation in practice.
Monitoring
Each stage of the water delivery system has to be closely monitored in order to ensure quality of water supply and
efficiency of operations. A good monitoring system should capture the vital signs of a water delivery system
continuously since knowing the as-is status of operations is the first step towards optimizing water delivery.
Depending on what is being monitored, the task of monitoring can be categorized as asset monitoring and water
quality monitoring.
Asset monitoring is about keeping a close vigil on the resources consumed by an asset, the amount of useful work
done by the asset, its operational pattern, and utilization. Such monitoring can be accomplished through SCADA
systems integrated with GIS [GIS]. In addition to keeping track of such performance related parameters, monitoring
the physical well-being of an asset such as its structural integrity and health history is equally important for it can lead
to proactive prognosis of equipment failures. While asset monitoring systems have come a long way in the past few
years, significant gaps nevertheless exist: (i) monitoring is done mostly for point assets alone (i.e., assets that are
geographically localized such as pumps, valves, etc) and only for certain point assets; (ii) structural integrity of
geographically distributed assets such as pipelines remain, by and large, unmonitored; and (iii) asset failures are
detected reactively after the event has occurred. Monitoring systems that can alert utility managers proactively
about asset failures would be much more useful.
Water quality monitoring involves checking the quality of water in terms of suspended matter, dissolved solids, and
biological content to make sure that these parameters are within stipulated limits. Water quality monitoring is done
quite regularly at the output of the water treatment units. However, in the rest of the water delivery network (such as
distribution pipes), water quality is monitored only through random sampling (at different times, at different points).
Clearly, such a strategy is not reliable since if water quality degrades across unmonitored sections, it cannot be
detected (and hence fixed). Ideally, one would like to have a monitoring system that can track water quality roundthe-clock along the entire network.
IT can be leveraged to effectively plug the gaps in present day asset and water quality monitoring systems through
wireless sensor networks working in tandem with advanced computational informatics. Earlier generations of
sensory devices were energy guzzlers and had to be connected by wire to a backend device for gathering and
processing sensory data. This made the option of using such sensors to monitor water quality in public water
distribution systems cumbersome, costly, and unviable. However, advances in wireless communications and sensor
electronics have resulted in a new generation of sensors that can push sensory data to remote back-end IT systems
wirelessly. These sensors are not as power-hungry as their ancestors, and are powered by batteries.
A network of such wireless sensors can be used to provide a round-the-clock water network monitoring system and
whenever the quality of water degrades beyond tolerable limits, appropriate actions can be triggered automatically.
As water delivery systems are a potential terrorism target due to their geographical spread and susceptibility to a
chemical attack, wireless sensors can be used for both ensuring the physical security as well as for tracking any
chemical contamination spread along the water network [Kroll]. Pockets of trapped gas and even structural defects
in the pipes can be detected automatically using sensors without interrupting the service [PPIC]. Tracking water
levels in reservoirs or sources can give valuable information on the availability of supply which can then be used for
proper scheduling, planning, and enforcement.
Accounting
While monitoring allows the as-is status of a water-utilitys operations to be known completely, accounting deals
with identifying the various beneficiaries of utility operations along with their quantum of benefits. Without
appropriate accounting, a utility cannot hope to recover the costs of its operations, and offered services, in a fair
manner.
At the heart of a utilitys accounting system is its metering infrastructure. Water connection to each end-consumer is
tracked using water meters. At present, the meter readings are either gathered manually or estimated by utility
personnel once every month based on which the consumers are charged. The need for manual intervention in
gathering meter reading makes the process error-prone and expensive. Apart from the data collection issue, water
delivery systems are plagued by another accounting problem water leaks. In fact, many utilities routinely report
non-revenue water, i.e., water that has been procured but has not been billed by the utility [IWA]. It has been
estimated that the total cost to utilities due to non-revenue water is about $14 billion [WB]. In utilities, at present,
water accounting typically occurs at the gross level, i.e., at the utilitys source and at the meters of the end customers.
Using such coarse grained metering, it is difficult to discover leaks and account for them.
IT can help overcome such accounting deficiencies using smart meters and sensors. Smart meters equipped with a
wireless interface can automatically track the consumption and report the reading directly to the utility through a
mesh network [ZIG]. Alternatively, these meters can be read by field personnel in a drive-through scanning process
[UTI]. Either of the above will: (i) avoid the errors involved in manual reading; (ii) eliminate the use of estimates in
billing; and (iii) reduce manpower use and employee travel. Similarly, wireless sensors equipped with pressure
sensors and associated analytics software can be deployed at strategic locations along the distribution network to
detect and report water leaks.
Apart from metering at the consumer end, metering may also be required on the procurement side. For instance, if a
utility purchases water from other states and counties, the in-flows have to be accounted according to water sharing
agreements. IT can play a key role in enforcing water sharing agreements by continuously tracking and regulating the
water flow in an automatic manner. As the process is automated, dispute resolution, if any, will be easier.
In addition to water consumption and procurement, two other parameters of water utilities need to be tracked
closely viz. energy consumption and carbon footprint. These are growing increasingly important, owing to the
energy costs, environmental regulations, social awareness, and the possibility of generating revenues through
carbon credits. Water delivery systems consume significant amounts of energy to provide clean potable water,
especially in naturally arid areas. For example, the state of California alone spends $500 million annually on energy
expenses for delivering water [CEC]. The energy footprint and carbon emissions associated with various processes
involved in water delivery have to be tracked individually in order to devise viable energy conservation and emission
abatement strategies. IT can help in accounting the energy and carbon footprint of the various constituent processes
of water utilities using smart meters and/or intelligent analytical frameworks. IT can also be used to benchmark the
performance of a utility through constant tracking of key operating parameters [IBNET]. This will help compare the
efficiencies of utilities and also track the enhancement in the operations when corresponding improvement
measures are implemented.
Optimizing
The main idea behind employing IT for managing water delivery networks is to improve their design and operational
efficiency. IT enabled optimizations are possible in almost all stages of water delivery.
IT can be effectively used to procure water from a mix of sources depending on the cost/benefit tradeoffs involved.
For instance, a utility may have two sources, such as surface water and an aquifer. Withdrawing water from an aquifer
typically involves a recharge cost paid to the government, which is higher than the cost of procuring the river water.
Depending on the storage levels of the river water reservoirs, which can be tracked at a fine granularity using IT, an
informed decision can be made whether to tap the aquifer or not. IT integrated with GIS system can also be used for
modeling the watershed and catchment areas to prospect for water [GIS]. IT enabled systems can automatically alter
the extent of treatment required depending on the input water quality and seasonal changes. For instance, during
the rainy season, disinfection (e.g., chlorination) can be done at a higher intensity to compensate for possible ground
water seepage into the distribution lines.
Depending on the consumption and availability, IT can dynamically alter the operating schedule of pumping stations
to save energy and costs. Multi-grade water networks are becoming prevalent in developed economies with natural
water limitations such as Sydney and Los Angeles [SYD]. The idea is to collect waste water from residences, treat it and
re-supply the treated water back to the customers for non-direct consumption such as irrigation and flushing,
thereby reducing the net in-take of fresh water from natural sources. Such recycling can also potentially reduce the
pumping costs. When multiple water grades are present, the complexity of gathering, storing, treating, and
distributing such water optimally grows enormously, certainly necessitating an IT system for overseeing the
operations.
Planning
Planning for a utility involves scheduling proactive and reactive maintenance tasks and laying of new infrastructure
to serve a growing and/or spreading population. Currently, owing to the complexity of the design options, planning
is typically done in a somewhat ad-hoc manner with utility expansion playing catch-up with the population growth.
IT can be most useful in systematic exploration of the design and implementation options in a variety of ways.
A typical question any utility planner would face when attempting to grow a utility is Where should the new
pumping plant be located? A more general question would be: How should the utility grow? In practice, there are a
variety of constraints in terms of right of way, capital, environmental clearance, etc. While these have to be
considered, there are also other cost variables such as plant erection costs, real estate, pipe laying costs, and pumping
costs. Ideally, the utility planner would like to satisfy all the requirements while minimizing the capital and
operational costs involved. Even for small-to-mid-size utilities, this cannot be done manually. This is something IT
tools can answer by leveraging optimization techniques. One of the key issues in infrastructure deployment is ability
to asses the risks involved. Such risks include not only those arising due to technical reasons, but also due to sociopolitical policy decisions. IT solutions have the ability to effectively model such risks during infrastructure planning.
IT can help maintenance aspects too. The cost of a main distribution pipe burst can be significant in terms of physical
damage and service disruption. To avoid incurring this, the pipes along the distribution mains are typically replaced
proactively. In an IT-enabled water network, the health of the mains can be checked automatically through sensors,
and maintenance tasks can be prioritized accordingly. IT planning methodologies can be used to allocate the capital
investment available in the best possible manner. An end-to-end pervasion of IT in water utilities would allow the
usage pattern, and hence the demand growth, to be predicted accurately along multiple time scales. This in turn will
allow the utility operations and water procurement tasks to be scheduled in an optimal manner. In effect, IT tools
should have the ability to analyze and answer a multitude of what-if questions that can help utility planners
understand the issues involved in changing and/or improving their network.
Control
As we have seen thus far, IT can help take several informed decisions in an automated fashion. The next step is to
realize or implement these decisions. IT can help here too, through the use of actuators devices whose electromechanical movements can be controlled remotely through a wire/wireless link. Deploying such actuators in the
water delivery network and integrating them with automated decision making systems will truly transform utility
operations.
For instance, water districts typically propose policy decisions such as watering lawns on alternate days, not using the
hose to clean cars, etc. As can be easily inferred, 100% compliance to such policies cannot be enforced with human
intervention alone. With the help of intelligent actuators though, the utility can actually disable or enable the lawnhose in accordance with the proposed policy. Further, such actuators allow utilities to dynamically alter their policies
and enforce the changed policies with little or no effort. As with utilities, even environmental agencies can enforce
the restrictions on withdrawals from water bodies using smart controllers.
IT enabled actuators can enable intelligent consumption too. Intelligent controllers can be used to control the
delivery of water used for irrigation depending on the weather conditions. Specifically, irrigation can be micromanaged depending on the moisture content of the soil, or even signals from the local weather observatory [INT]. In
a similar way, one can also envision home appliances such as dish washers and (clothes) washing
machines/laundromats to be switched on/off based on water availability allowing consumers and water utilities to
shape the demand.
Smart Sensors
Detects contamination,
leaks and stress on assets.
Indicates areas to be isolated
Smart Actuators
Execute special flow
diversion and protection
in milliseconds
Local STP
Farm
Residential Colony
Integrated IT Framework
Real-time water delivery optimization &
Proactive asset management
Factory
Water Purifier
Purification based on
Water quality
River
Aquifer
Municipal STP
Lake
Smart Source selection
Water harvesting based on
quality, quantity, demand and cost
Conclusion
With its vast experience in end-to-end system development, billing, solutioning, and consulting, TCS has the knowhow required to integrate the numerous devices and systems that need to work together in any potential smart water
network. In addition, TCS and its Co-Innovation Network (COIN) partners offer several water management solutions.
For instance, with TaKaDu, TCS provides a solution for monitoring water distribution networks. This solution, using
state-of-the-art statistical and mathematical algorithms offers the customer real-time control over network leaks. TCS
also offers other water management products such as Tata Swach [SWACH], a robust, low cost water filter that is
aimed at serving communities with limited access to power and piped water.
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The road towards realizing a smart water network contains numerous opportunities for leveraging IT but is marked by
several research challenges too. Key challenges in monitoring include: knowledge mining in terms of predicting asset
failure from stress data, deployment framework for the sensors in terms of how many and where to deploy them to
meet collection requirements, and communication protocols for data gathering. Smart accounting also brings about
interesting problems: analytics that can apportion consumption when sub-metering is not possible, leak detection
using minimum cost deployment of sensors, and quantification of the number of sensors required and their
deployment strategy to detect leaks at a given level with a given accuracy level. Smart planning calls for sophisticated
algorithm development for optimization, while smart control involves development of system hardware and
software for several elements of the network. It is imperative to overcome these challenges for a smart water
distribution network enabled through IT will help the world manage its water resources better and make the
consumption sustainable.
References
[USGS] Distribution of the Earths water resources, http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterdistribution.html
[CA] Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture 2007, Water for food, water for life: A
comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. London, UK: Earthscan; and Colombo, Sri Lanka; IWMI.
[FAO] FAO: Aquastat. http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat
[IWMI] International Water Management Institute, Insights from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water
Management in Agriculture, 2006/p8
[SWACH] Tata Swach: http://www.tataswach.com
[USGS2] US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2005,
Circular 1344
[UN] United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, the 2009 Revision http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm
[IBNET] International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities http://www.ib-net.org
[AWWA] American Water Works Association, Residential End Users of Water, 1999
[USEPA] USEPA, Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment,
[CRS] Congressional Research Service, Terrorism and Security Issues Facing the Water Infrastructure Sector
[Kroll] Kroll, Dan and King, Karl 2006 "Safeguarding the Distribution System: On-Line Monitoring for Security and
Enhancing Operational Performance" Journal of the New England Water Works Association. June 2006.
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TCS has several disruptive innovations to its credit. It set up its first
research lab in 1981 when the IT industry in India was just taking
shape. It set-up a software tool foundry which has over the years
produced generations of tools for model-driven development,
testing, artificial intelligence and re-engineering, to name a few.
Today, the global network of Innovation Labs works across domains
and new technologies to deliver a range of solution frameworks. In
the true spirit of collaboration, TCS has created a Co-Innovation
Network (TCS COIN). This connects to several entities in the
innovation ecosystem and TCS co-innovates with them, capitalizing
on the strengths of each to the benefit of all. Leveraging its market
presence, business innovation experience and its co-innovation
capabilities, TCS is well equipped to play a significant role in smart
water delivery.
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