“ By 2045 , an estimated six billion people will be living in cities . That means an enormous number of showers flowing , toilets flushing , and sinks being filled . ”
per day by 2020 ( enough water to supply the city of Liverpool for 24 hours ) or even 414 million litres per day by 2040 ( enough for Newcastle , Sheffield , and Liverpool together ), if the trend for increased demand continues .
As a result , they have embarked on a smart metering installation programme that will see 414 000 smart water meters installed in London by 2020 . By 2025 , they will be dealing with 35 billion hourly meter reads every year .
Extracting useful information on water consumption from such vast amounts of data is not easy . One system , iWIDGET , aims to analyse usage patterns of individual households . It then presents results , comparisons , and feedback , providing households with information about their water consumption . It offers highly customised suggestions on how to reduce use and get better value for money .
Sewer flooding warnings
Nobody likes to be caught in a flood — especially not a flood from a sewer . Reliable information about the likelihood , the extent , and the location of such flooding in a city is very valuable , but current detection methods can be slow and expensive . Our research demonstrated the use of an alternative approach , RAPIDS ( Radar Pluvial flooding Identification for Drainage System ), which instead of detecting , actually predicts flooding in sewer systems . It uses computer models to assess very large networks in real time , and raise alarm of sewer flooding . Results of that work , which was applied to three areas of the UK , shows much higher accuracy in predicting flooding .
A wet future
Smart sensors , artificial intelligence , big data analytics , and cloud computing are finally becoming involved in managing water systems in cities . This is partly due to the emergence of new water industry leaders trained in hydroinformatics — mixing big data with smart technologies to deliver more sustainable water solutions . A new discipline , one of its goals is to empower citizens to engage with water service provision on an individual level .
But to keep the taps running , the hydroinformaticians will need help . A new breed of specialist engineers and scientists is required to work across traditionally separate disciplines and manage the world ’ s water supply . By 2045 , an estimated six billion people will be living in cities . That means an enormous number of showers flowing , toilets flushing , and sinks being filled . So , in the meantime , we , and water systems , need to get even smarter . u
Dragan Savic
Dragan Savic , Professor of Hydroinformatics at the University of Exeter .
About the author
Professor Savic ( FREng , FICE , FCIWEM , FIWA , MASCE , CEng ) is the UK ’ s first Professor of Hydroinformatics , having held this post at the University of Exeter since 2001 . His research interests cover the interdisciplinary field of hydroinformatics , with applications generally in the environmental engineering / science areas , including water resources management ( both quality and quantity ), flood management , water and wastewater systems , and environmental protection and management .
30 Water Sewage & Effluent July / August 2017