Author(s): Dragan Savic
Linked Author(s): Dragan Savic
Keywords: Smart cities, smart water, infrastructure, hydroinformatics, management.
Abstract: More than half of the world's population lives in a city, and this proportion is projected to grow over 70 percent by 2050. Critical infrastructure systems, including water, energy and transport systems, are essential in ensuring the wellbeing of the population. Protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring continued and efficient operation is and will be an important part of future sustainable cities and "Smart City" ecosystems. However, water infrastructure systems are often overlooked when "Smart City" initiatives are considered. This may be due to several factors, including the centralised "top down" approach to provision of water services by an "invisible utility", disengagement of citizens who often feel that their individual actions are insignificant compared with actions of the utility, or simply our inability to properly harness the power of new technologies to better manage urban water systems. This paper addresses some of those Smart City issues, provides a summary of important information and communication technologies and how they fit with the "smart water" infrastructure concepts. Illustrative examples of some smart water technologies and their use in water system management are also shown. The initially slow uptake of smart water technologies is changing due to the shift in attitudes of people in charge of urban water management, better understanding of the potential of these new technologies to improve water service delivery and emergence of new water industry leaders trained in hydroinformatics. The role of hydroinformatics is identified in increasing understanding (knowledge) of both utility managers (top down) and citizens (bottom up) and in developing and applying modelling tools that support integrated decision-making and citizen engagement
Year: 2017