Smart water is akin to smart city enablement
which is happening in numerous cities of world. Across the globe smart water solutions provide access to clean water, proper drainage, water supply and utility
of water. There are
many smart water
solutions which can be made better use of from existing resources for a city at disposal such
that it can maximize to reach the citizens of a city. One of these concepts is the 'visibility of water flow’ through the water pipeline network.
This
solution provides the city,
the exact amount of water
flowing in water
pipelines in a city,
at a given point of time. This is included in smart water by fixing the flow
meters along the pipeline. Flow meters are bonafide sensors that measure the
flow of water in a pipeline. They would easily transmit readings to a central
server using various communication modes, which could be any one or a
combination of radio and wireless protocols. When the attached flow meters are
overlaid then the network shows actual number of flow meters varying as per
city requirements. Later when the flow meters send back this data, this
provides authorities to visualize water from pipeline networks. This is saved in a data
repository. It is possible for city authorities to gather history of water flow in a specific pipeline. The
above mechanism for water
flow measurement is just one of the many solutions applied to smart water technology,
although there could be many others. Some of the examples of smart water solutions are
rainwater harvesting, a monitoring system , an integrated
management etc. Usually the water
consumption is collected to be transformed it into valuable and actionable
intelligence across the utility.
In
the example of sensors the stage of sensor deployment is followed by KPI for
problem identification and mediation. The visual map of these readings is superimposed
on the given city map. These are readings for individual flow meter or a group.
A set of KPIs usually turns into a what is, a ‘Standard Operation procedure.’ Again
the water that is pumped
into the Water Distribution
network but not reaching the customer is called ‘non-revenue water.’ In this we
can observe equation for water
flow from A through B and C.
Water flowing through A = Water
Flowing through B + Water Flowing through C.
If
the right side of the equation is less than the left side, it would indicate
leakage or pilferage of water
and would throw an alert causing a standard operation procedure. This
comparison is called “Balance of Water”. Better accuracy of smart water solution can be obtained from smart water meters
installed at every customer.
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