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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES

SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR

SMART CITIES
   MR. R. V. SINGH

The term ‘Smart Water’ points to a water and wastewater infrastructure that ensures water and the energy used to
transport it are managed effectively and efficiently. A Smart Water system gives a city, a sound and viable strategy for
sustainable growth. The water utility also facilitates the sharing of actionable data to create efficiency. For instance, in an
extreme weather event, the watershed management team can automatically share storm water modeling information,
which points to potential flooding zones and times, based on predictive precipitation data. Armed with this information,
the transportation department can then re-route traffic accordingly and alert the population using mass notification.
Hospitals, emergency response teams and the like, would be able to respond to these disasters more effectively as they
will have some time to prepare themselves. This would of course ensure the general safety of the city’s residents. Smart
Water and critical infrastructures as a whole should be viewed as the cornerstone of any smart city strategy. Modernising
and then integrating a city’s infrastructure to work together is a challenge, but quickly demonstrates its value as part
of a smart growth plan. City water systems involve a combination of public and private actors in extracting, treating,
delivering and billing for water, as well as millions of households and businesses involved as water users. Smart systems
can be combined with data driven approaches to enable different parts of the system to “speak to each other”, combining
data from various sources to enable better decision making.

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INTRODUCTION
S
mart City: A smart city
has basic infrastructure,
uses ‘smart’ solutions to
make infrastructure and
services better and relies on area
base development. A smart city uses
information and communication
technology (ICT) to enhance its
livability, workability and sustainability.
The objectives of smart city are
to provide basic infrastructure,
quality of life, clean and sustainable
environment, apply smart solutions,
set examples to be replicated both
within and outside the Smart City and
catalyse the creation of similar Smart
Cities. Water and sanitation is one of
the basic infrastructures of a Smart
City. At the municipal level, the most
common way to monitor the water
delivery system has been to manually
read flow and pressure meters, while
water contamination is commonly
monitored by collecting water samples
that are analysed in a laboratory
environment. In a smart water grid
system, these parameters would be
collected, stored, and transmitted to a
computer by the meter itself, or from
a sensor to detect contamination. This
increases the amount and frequency
of information about the system and
decreases the need for field work.
Smart sensors for municipalities
include smart water meters for flow,
smart water meters for pressure, and
contaminant sensors and biosensors
for contamination detection.
Figure 1: Smart City Sectors
SMART WATER SOLUTIONS
Smart water solutions are:
(a) Smart Water Grids (SWGs): To
ensure the security of water quantity,
safety of water quality, and ICT-based
water management solutions, SWG
technology integrates five prime areas:
• Platform configuration in
both water and ICT (Information
& Communication
Technology) networks,
• Guarantee water resources
including both natural and
manufactured water,
• Intelligent control of water flow
using bi-directional communication
in water infrastructure,
• Better management scheme
dealing with risk-minimization
for assets in the water
infrastructure, and
• Energy efficiency in operating and
maintaining water infrastructure.
Two platforms (i.e. water and ICT
platforms) are introduced as examples
of well-designed platforms for the
management of bi-directional water
and data flows in accordance with
both the consumer’s water demands
and supplier’s water distribution
schemes, in both centralised and
decentralised water distribution grids.
Using the platforms and multiple
water resources, the intelligent
water grid control plays a key role
in satisfying the consumer’s as well
as the supplier’s water needs, using
self-diagnosing sensors and ICT-based
cooperative networks. To improve
water infrastructure energy efficiency,
low energy processes combined with
alternative energy sources and smart
power grid management are suggested
as key cost-saving methods for water
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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES
production and/or distribution. Thus,
integrating the five prime areas
in SWG technology provide water
managers insight into planning water
infrastructure and shed light on the
roles of the SWGs in future smart
cities. Sensing devices that collect and
transmit data about the water system
on a real-time basis are the foundation
of any smart water grid.
(b) Visibility of water flow: This solution
would enable city operators to know
the amount of water flowing through
water pipelines in a city at a given
point of time. This is achieved by
fixing flow meters along the  pipeline.
A Geographical Information System
(GIS) map overlaid with a water pipe
network. This helps in visualisation
of the city operations on top of  a GIS
map. A GIS that maps all of a city’s
assets and location information is a
big contributor to what makes a smart
city smart. Flow meters are sensors
that measure the flow of water in a
pipeline. They transmit their readings
to the central server through various
communication modes, which could
be any one or a combination of
radio and wireless protocols. Flow
meters, on sending their data at
regular intervals, would allow city
authorities  to visualise water flowing
through the city’s pipeline networks
at any given point of time. The data
coming from flow meters would be
saved into a data repository. With
that, it would even be possible for city
authorities  to gather the history of
water flown across a single or a group
of flow meters in a specific pipeline.
With historic data, it would be possible
for the city to develop Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). This would allow
the city operators to receive alerts
whenever the amount of water flowing
through a sensor is below or above a
certain value in a dashboard. Once the
city operators receive an alert,  they
would investigate the cause for
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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES
KPI violation (whether  it’s a faulty
sensor or  a water flow issue) . This
process of identification of problems
and mediation would be done in
a predefined steps of a Standard
Operating Procedure, in the event of
KPI violations.
Figure 2: Integrated Management Platform
Control Center(s)
(C) Smart Water Meters (SWM):
SWM have additional advantages
over manual meters. One of these
advantages is increased sensitivity to
low water flows, which increases data
collection accuracy. Other advantages
of these more sensitive meters include
the ability to measure backflow, which
can indicate a problem in the system.
They are also less susceptible to
corrosion from particles in the system.
Smart Meters monitor, measure and
communicate customer’s water
usage data to utility providers.  They
can operate autonomously or as
Source: Alliance for Water Efficiency (2014)
Figure 3: Smart Meter Technologies
38 thewaterdigest.com
part of a wireless ‘mesh’ network
with neighbouring ‘Smart’ Meters
and transmit information to utility
companies using biologically-friendly
bursts of microwave radiation, 24
hours/day.  Many appliances and
consumer goods coming to market
today feature tiny RFID chips which
are capable of communicating with a
‘Smart Meter’ so that the system can
log which appliances, devices and
products are used, at what times and
for how long.
(d) Smart Pumps and Valves: Smart
valves and pumps adjust their
operations based on environmental
conditions or signals from sensors.
These adjustments can happen
automatically or remotely by a human
controller. The main benefit of smart
controllers is increased efficiency. For
example, variable speed pumps sense
water conditions and will ramp up or
down depending on those conditions.
These pumps can also be equipped
to sense clogs in the system and
respond by breaking up clogs and/or
reversing the flow. This is especially
useful for wastewater and raw water
conveyance. Smart valves adjust
or block the flow of water in pipes,
based on environmental conditions.
They can be used as part of pressure
management strategies, as a part of
leak detection activities, or to prevent
environmental contamination due
to combined sewer overflows. At
the end-use level, smart irrigation
controllers show promise in helping
to save water that is wasted on
landscape irrigation. Smart irrigation
controllers can receive and/or collect
weather data or sense soil moisture
levels, as well as other parameters,
which helps determine proper water
scheduling. Using this information,
the watering schedule can be
updated automatically on a daily
basis. The valves and pumps that
implement the actual watering of the
landscape will then turn on and off at
the best times possible.
URBAN WATER SYSTEM
ISSUES AND POTENTIAL
SMART SOLUTIONS
The city water issues are: Losses,
wastage/overuse, quality, energy
consumption, disasters and drought.
The potential Smart Solutions to
address each issue are reviewed
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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES

below, focusing not only on individual
technological solutions, but also the
combination of technologies to create
a problem-solving system.
Water Losses: Water losses occur from
leaks, unmetered consumption (legal
or illegal), and meter inaccuracies.
At the level of the municipality and
distribution system, the percent of
water lost varies by location, from 12
to 15 percent in newer cities and 25
to 30 percent in older cities. Smart
meters and end-use sensing devices
can help with leak detection. For
example, continuous data from a
residential smart meter could reveal a
leak by showing a positive water flow
when all fixtures are off. Finding leaks
in municipal water supply could also
be accomplished through smart step
testing. With a smart step testing
system, smart valves and smart
meters can replace workers out in
the field and would require only one
person at a computer terminal. The
process could even be automated;
only requiring human attention if
something goes wrong.
limited. At the same time, 30 to 60
percent of contamination events
occur in the water distribution system.
These events are often detected by
consumers who have already been
exposed. Once the existence of a
problem is discovered, it may take days
to identify the source of the event in
order to fix it . The water quality in the
drinking water distribution system can
be affected by several factors including
disinfectant depletion (water age),
contaminant intrusion from pressure
differentials and pipe work (i.e.,
installation, repair, and replacement),
biofilms, pipe corrosion, accidents,
and terrorism. In a smart water grid,
biosensors and multi-contaminant
sensors could alert authorities to
potential problems and their location
immediately, while smart meters could
detect leaks and pressure differentials
that cause contaminant intrusion.
Smart meters could also help in the
monitoring of water age. Lastly, smart
valves can isolate contaminated water
to prevent its spread through the
distribution system.
COSTS
Smart water management (SWM)
approaches seek to promote a
sustainable, well-coordinated
development and management
of water resources through the
integration of ICT products, tools and
solutions; thus providing the basis
for a sustainable approach to water
management and consumption.

Water Wastage/Overuse: Water

wastage/overuse can be defined as
consuming more water than is needed
to achieve the desired function, e.g.,
maintaining landscape, flushing
toilets, and cleaning dishes. Water
conservation has seen improvement
in recent decades through low-flow
fixtures and educational campaigns.
An area where water overuse has yet
to be addressed is watering of urban
landscapes in water scarce regions.
Landscape watering is significant
in these locations, where more than
50% of the total household water used
goes to landscaping, especially in the
summer months.

Water Quality: Water quality monitoring

in the water distribution system and Source: Berst et al. (2013)
end-use pipe system is usually very
Figure 4: Advantages of smart water management

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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES
The low cost of some ICT products,
as well as their fast turnover rates
when applied to urban environments,
is fostering new and innovative
approaches to ensure safe and
adequate water provision for city
dwellers. These technologies can be
adapted to continuously monitor and
diagnose problems, prioritise and
manage maintenance issues, and
use data to optimise all aspects of the
urban water management network.
Harnessing the potential of ICTs
in cities through the use of SWM
can contribute to overcome water
related socio-economic, cultural and
environmental challenges, as well as to
equip cities with technology to mitigate
the impacts of climate change.
Though capital cost of water supply
project for a smart city in comparison
to any other urban water supply project
may be higher, the saving through
prevention of water losses, low cost ICT
products, quality response and service,
and other host of benefits ensures
payback in short time.
LEGACY SYSTEM
The key issues, however, have remained.
What types of policies are required
to accompany the development and
stimulate the diffusion of ICT for
smart water management for a smart
city? When should these policies be
implemented? In addition to these
issues, the baseline methodologies that
need to be established for determining
the trade-offs and synergistic benefits
for ICT innovations within water
management frameworks at the
national and regional levels, have been
overlooked, or otherwise focused on
narrow sector-driven mandates.
Since the current smart water market
is fairly new and fragmented, policies
will need to be adaptable, while at the
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same time reflecting the country's
intention of deployment and the type of
technologies considered. Unfortunately,
due to the young nature of the smart
water market, there have only been
limited incentives and initiatives that
pursue a more integrated research
approach across sectoral domains.
Herein lies a problem. Since policy
developers need to co-ordinate efforts
and have access to clear informational
resources (many of which can only be
provided through research and careful
examination of the water sector within a
given country), inadequate and narrow-
minded frameworks are often designed.
In brief, properly timed and flexible
policies are essential for the adoption
of smart water management initiatives
in urban areas. Therefore, governments
should support new, generic, flexible
smart water management incentives,
especially those that support full
system integration. This ensures that
policy makes are better equipped
with the knowledge necessary to
design effective smart water polices.
Coherent cross-sector policies
developed through a multi stakeholder
approach will ensure the success and
sustainability of these tools.
Consequently, a coherent strategy
must be the starting point before
implementation of any citywide
SWM initiative. This facilitates the
development of innovative partnerships
to harness and utilise the necessary
information effectively, thereby
creating guidelines, strategies and best
practices, properly tailored through
protocols and standards.
Standardisation and policy
development must be appropriately
co-ordinated and taken forward
based on robust research, including a
careful examination of the water and
wastewater sector, as well as the broad
engagement of key stakeholders (e.g.
different governmental sectors, non-
governmental organisations (NGOs),
academia, and the private sector)
within a given city. Appropriate policies
and measures are key to support
the development and deployment
of smart water systems (e.g. water
pricing, education and information,
competition for non-domestic
consumers). Likewise, as smart water
solutions continue to emerge and
their integration deepens in urban
environments, the importance of
common standards for hardware and
software will continue to rise. These
standards are key to encouraging
the international deployment of
innovative technologies, and thus
continue progress in the smart water
management field.
CONCLUSION
Smart water systems can be
characterised as systems with "a
high degree of automation, rapid
response times or the capability to
capture information in real-time,
the ability to transmit data between
remote locations and the data
processing facility, and for the data
to be interpreted and presented to
utilities and end users". While these
systems combine both technical and
non-technical innovations, information
and communication technologies
(ICTs) are increasingly providing
novel operational possibilities to
urban water managers. Smart water
management (SWM) can play a key
role in the transformation of cities of
developed and developing countries
into smart and sustainable cities
(SSC), if adequate policies, stern
governance, and broad stakeholder
involvement are integrated into
its planning and implementation.
Through real-time monitoring, efficient
operation, improved decision-making,
and enhanced performance and
service delivery, SWM can ensure that
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SMART WATER SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CITIES

a city's growth is not achieved at the
expense of its water resources. Further
advantages such as increased revenue
in utilities, reduced operational costs
and increased public involvement
place SWM as a viable, smart
sustainable solution to address urban
water challenges.
City water systems involve a
combination of public and private
actors in extracting, treating, delivering
and billing for water, as well as millions
of households and businesses involved
as water users. Smart systems can be
combined with data driven approaches
to enable different parts of the system
to “speak to each other”, combining
data from various sources to enable
better decision making. The solutions
around Smart Water would be around
making better use of the existing water
resources a city has at its disposal so
that it can  maximise its reach to the
citizens of a city.
REFERENCES:
1. yourstory.com/2015/03/smart-water-
solutions/
2. www.SmartCities.gov.in; the smart
cities mission,MoUD
3. Intelligent (SMART) Water
Systems Professor Dragan Savic
FREng,FCIWEM,FICE
4. Challenges, ISSN 2078-1547, www.
mdpi.com/journal/challenges
5. http://www.waterworld.com/articles/
print/volume-29/issue-12
6. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/
focusgroups/ssc/.../TR-SWM-cities.docx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr. R. V. Singh is an engineer with an M.S. in Environment and an MBA in Project Management. He has over 25 years
of experience in Water & Wastewater Engineering & Management in India and abroad. He has been involved in turnkey
projects of water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants (WTP, STP, ETP, CETP), urban water supply schemes on
BOT & EPC basis, cross-country pipeline, multi-village water supply schemes, water retaining structures, storm water
drainage & sewerage pipelines and other infrastructural projects. Currently, he is working with JITF Water Infrastructure
Limited as Vice President & Head - Engineering, looking after their water and wastewater business.
To know more about the author, kindly write to us at: info@thewaterdigest.com

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