Sustainability Problem: Water

In the United States alone, it is estimated that 6 billion tons of treated water is lost on a daily basis. Additionally, contaminants and pollution from old infrastructure can inconspicuously enter into pipes, which contributes to inefficient and unsafe water and water management. As water systems are spreading across more land and obtaining an increased physical footprint, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Collectively, this presents a safety and health risk in addition to resulting in excessive loss of natural resources, namely water.

Sustainability Technology: IoT Smart Devices and Sensors

• “Implementing IoT for Smart Water Management” published in Water World found via: https://www.waterworld.com/water-utility-management/smart-water-utility/article/14185689/implementing-iot-for-smart-water-management
• IoT technology, such as smart devices and sensors, can make water management more efficient and instill a safer process
• The sensors and smart devices collect real-time data and enable monitoring of water quality, water levels (e.g., water usage) in addition to serving as a leak indicator. This can help maintain physical infrastructure as well as utility worker safety.
• Once installed, these sensors will increase the amount of data exponentially, which can be used to gain operational efficiency or increase public safety and awareness, for example.
• Ultimately, these real-time alerts can provide insights to divert excess water to another part of a water system network, signal water levels are low-which means there is a probable leak, prevent contaminated water from being dispersed to homes or businesses to name a few. However, there are many other ways water sensors and devices can promote operational efficiency and safety depending on infrastructure and needs.

Organizational Stakeholders:

• Infrastructure Technician, Private Water Company
• Infrastructure Technician, Public Works Department
• Private company (e.g., semi conductor manufacturing) infrastructure engineers
• Public company infrastructure (e.g., industrials) engineer

Technology Implementation and Deployment:

1) Conduct current state assessment (e.g., identify and map assets) and preliminary research; understand gaps in current state. This includes validating network and device security.
2) Identify site/municipality for test case based on current state analysis; execute test case.
3) Review results and make recommendation for broader scale implementation.