Smart Water Infrastructure Monitoring and Management Systems for the Digital City

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of the Water Special Issue on “Smart Water Infrastructure Monitoring and Management Systems for the Digital City” is to: (i) promote worldwide dissemination of current research results and recent developments of innovative technology solutions for smart water infrastructure management systems, and (ii) foster experience sharing in their field demonstration and early deployment to upgrade the reliability, efficiency, quality control capabilities, security and resiliency of sustainable metropolitan services of water supply, wastewater management and integrated renewable resources of water recovery.

Local governments and water utilities in both industrialized and developing countries presently face increasingly complex strategic and operational challenges, including: climate change impacts on urban ecosystem sustainability and increasing water stress in vulnerable regions; critical needs for upgrading the disaster resiliency of water infrastructure systems; preemptive measures for the management of climate sensitive extreme events; growing needs for asset management for escalating investments into the renewal and rehabilitation of the high-density aging urban infrastructure systems; a high leakage rate in the urban water distribution systems of megacities in developing countries; ground water contamination; energy optimization; growing public awareness and societal demand for rapid urbanization with sustainable, efficient, safe and affordable water supply services; emerging regulations for urban ecosystem preservation and water quality control to minimize  public health risks; rising needs for the integration of renewable resources and water recovery systems facing increasing water scarcity; as well as other environmental sustainability risks, rising societal concerns, economic constraints, and operational challenges. On a global scale, while sustainable access to safe drinking water is recognized by the United Nations as a fundamental human right and a core element of the sustainable development goals, with more than 1 billion people still lacking access to potable water, climate change impacts on the growing scarcity of the resource is a reality that severely affects public health in developing countries and increasingly threatens sustainable agriculture, food security and geo-political stability in expanding water stress regions.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in the United States a substantial part of the one million miles of pipes of drinking water supply systems was installed in the early to mid-20^th century with a lifespan of 75 to 100 years. Consequently, the ASCE Report Card estimates indicate over 240,000 water main breaks per year, wasting over two trillion gallons of treated drinking water. Recent water contamination cases, their public health effects and emerging microbial contaminants clearly indicate the critical need for improving water quality control and early anomaly detection capabilities. In 2013–14 alone, a total of 42 drinking-water-associated outbreaks caused by infectious pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the Center of Disease Control from 19 states. According to the American Water Works Association (AWWA), an estimated $1 trillion is necessary to maintain and expand service to meet demands over the next 25 years. In Europe, large parts of the 3,500,000 km of water distribution networks require major rehabilitation investments, which according to the European Innovation Partnership (EIP Water) are estimated by leading water utilities (Thames Water: € 1 billion/year; The Netherlands: € 270 million/year) to €20 billion/year for the next 30 years. In many European countries, the water leakage rate exceeds 30% and water quality does not meet the European water safety directives. Real-time infrastructure monitoring systems for condition assessment-based prioritization and the optimization of investments to accelerate the required renewal and rehabilitation of aging water systems, integrating renewable resources and water recovery in urban water management systems and upgrading water quality control and early anomaly detection capabilities are urgently needed.

Facing the growing water sustainability and infrastructure system resiliency challenges, the rapid development of sensing, information and communication technologies (SICT), data science, urban informatics and artificial intelligence (AI) applications have increasingly provided water utility managers and engineers with real-time system monitoring capabilities for improving early leakage and water quality anomaly detection, upgrading incident mitigation and system operation control, engaging preemptive asset management optimization, and thereby driving a significant paradigm shift from reactive to real-time monitoring infrastructure management systems. Smart infrastructure management systems, which are increasingly used for high-risk power grids, offer water utilities new SICT solutions for upgrading their system management capacity to better cope with the growing impacts of climate change, efficiently increase system resiliency and drive a reliable integration of renewable resources and water recovery in water resource management, support shared basin governance and trans-boundary groundwater contamination monitoring, engage in AI-based public communication, information and education to promote effective customer participation in optimizing the demand-driven utility management system, and undertake preemptive early warning measures to face complex operational uncertainties. With an estimated savings potential of about €10 billion annually worldwide (source: Sensus; Water 20/20, Bringing Smart Water Networks into Focus) the deployment of smart water management (SWM) systems has raised major water governance and system management challenges to the safety, security, reliability and institutional liability of real-time data-driven and cyber-dependent system control, while offering a dynamic market potential to SICT industries, the financial sector, research centers and educational communities for the development, field demonstration and deployment of innovative SWM solutions, creative financing models and new AI-based services for smart future cities.  

This Special Issue presents a state-of-the-art review of the current research addressing the water governance challenges and operator’s risk management strategies for SWM integration and deployment, recent SICT developments, AI applications, field demonstrations of innovative technology solutions, public education initiatives to promote the necessary paradigm shift to the digital culture with effective customer participation in optimizing the water system management, SWM performance monitoring and impact assessment studies, and creative financing models and lessons learned from deployment case studies of “Smart Water Infrastructure Monitoring and Management Systems for the Digital City”. Its intent is to promote worldwide governance commitment to innovation for improving the current state of practice and corporate investment in SWM research, development and deployment for upgrading the urban water management systems of both industrialized and developing countries. For this purpose, this comprehensive best practice assessment includes selected peer-reviewed papers from a wide array of water industry executives, government experts, water utility specialists, SICT and digital media industries, data scientists, financial experts, research and educational communities as well as urban planners and other professionals involved in water systems management and sustainable urban development.

Prof. Ilan Juran
Guest Editor

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