What is smart water management?
- Smart water management is a smart city technology that uses sensor-enabled monitors, automation, networking and data analytics to help municipalities better manage water resources.
- Smart water management can help reduce water usage, manage floods and droughts more effectively, prevent leaks in water systems, ensure water safety and more accurately predict future water demands.
Smart water management has become a priority for municipalities as population growth and unpredictable weather patterns continue to add stress to urban water systems. As part of the rise of smart cities technology, smart water management and other smart city initiatives are helping cities to manage essential resources more efficiently and improve the quality of life for citizens. But what is smart water management precisely, and what benefits does it offer municipalities and citizens? This brief article, “What is smart water management?”, offers an overview of this smart city technology.
What is smart water management?
Smart water management programs help cities to collect and analyze the data they need to better manage water supplies. Smart water management provides water utilities with real-time information about water pressure, flow and distribution, while smart meter technology provides consumers with information about water consumption.
What is smart water management’s biggest challenge?
The many challenges facing water utilities include:
- Aging water distribution infrastructure that can result in water loss.
- Inefficient pumping technology that can increase energy costs.
- Increased threats to water safety from pollution and runoff.
- Rising rates of consumption due to population growth.
What is smart water management designed to achieve?
Smart water management uses advanced technology to enable water utilities to better monitor water systems and consumption to ensure there is an adequate supply of water, to reduce the cost of managing and delivering it, and to ensure its safety.
What is smart water management infrastructure?
Smart water management infrastructure includes:
- Sensors that monitor water pressure, vibration, temperature, flow, quality and other criteria.
- Networks that collect data from sensors and transmit it to water utilities.
- Analytics platforms that can process vast amounts of information, transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.
What is smart water management’s greatest benefit to cities?
The benefits of smart city water management include:
- Preventing leaks that may contribute to water shortages.
- Improving water quality through proactive monitoring and early detection of things like bacteria and pathogens.
- Planning to meet variable levels of demand for water.
- Reducing energy consumption by optimizing pumping operations.
- Managing water utility infrastructure with predictive analytics to extend the lifecycle of assets and minimize unplanned outages.
- Reducing overhead costs and improving billing accuracy.
What is smart water management’s greatest benefit for consumers?
For consumers, smart water management provides more reliable and affordable access to water resources.
What is smart water management with Spectrum Enterprise?
Spectrum Enterprise supports smart water management initiatives by providing connectivity solutions that are the foundation for today’s smart cities. A fully interactive digital network and 100 Gbps symmetrical Internet speeds provide the bandwidth that municipalities need to connect to a wide array of sensor technology and transmit the data they produce. Spectrum also provides gigabit connections for homes and businesses, thousands of WiFi hotspots and one of the country’s largest LTE cellular networks, all helping to provide the framework for connectivity that communities need to take advantage of new smart city technology.
Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.