Smart City Wireless Connectivity Considerations and Cost Analysis: Lessons Learnt From Smart Water Case Studies

According to estimates from the United Nations, while the world population is likely to reach 9 billion by 2050 (from around 7 billion today), the water resources available to cater to this population are likely to remain similar to what they are today. Therefore, there is a growing concern to reduce water wastage and improve the efficiency of water distribution systems, in particular, urban water systems given the proliferation in both the number of cities that are springing up and the number of people moving to live in cities. Motivated by this, the European Commission under the aegis of the Framework Program (FP7) funded the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Solutions for the Efficient Water Resources Management project. This Smart Water project is aimed at investigating the role of ICT in monitoring and efficiently managing urban water systems, in particular, exploring the deployment of sensors, communication technologies, and associated decision support systems in utility providers water networks geared toward addressing problems, such as leakage management, demand management, asset management, and so on. This article elaborates on the wireless connectivity considerations, proposes a total cost of ownership framework for evaluating candidate solutions, and highlights experiences from Smart Water case studies involving two utilities in Europe.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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