Ensuring the sustainability, security and resilience of water supplies in the face of climate change is a global challenge which demands increasingly intelligent approaches to the management and transport of finite water resources. This project aims to utilise smart sensing technologies and IT to improve the sustainable management of water resources.
Researchers
The project is led by Professor Wenyan Wu of Birmingham City University (BCU), who works with project partners in the consortium, including with United Utility, a UK-based water company, and Greek and Romanian technology firm, Singular Logic and Spanish ICT and water consultancy company.
Research background
The nature of urban water infrastructure doesn’t support the capacity for real-time updates and the fragmentation of the sector has resulted in mixed adoption of IT technologies. The lack of a live system means water leakage and supply/demand issues are not dealt with efficiently, resulting in a loss of important resources or a drop in service.
The research addresses these challenges, which demand increasingly intelligent approaches to the management and transport of finite water resources through future smart water networks. It meets a currently unmet demand for highly skilled and multi-disciplinary engineers and scientists who apply advanced sensors; ICT, the Internet of Things (IoT) to enable smarter water networks in an increasingly complex regulated environment.
Research aims
The IoT4Win project aims to develop the sustainability, security and resilience of water supply and distribution system in the face of climate change using advanced sensing and IoT technologies.
The IoT4Win project utilises smart sensors, IoT, big data and AI technologies to solve several water use challenges, including providing real-time updates on the quality, quantity and demand for water in urban areas, as well as any cyber-physical security issues the system may face.
Research methods
The project addresses water infrastructure issues in three core areas:
- Smart sensing and trusted communication within energy limited heterogeneous devices in an IoT enabled urban water environment
- Dynamic sensor web and interoperable open platform with Integrated Knowledge Management for smart water networks (SWN)
- Data security and intelligence in IoT enabled SWN.
IoT4Win brings the interdisciplinary expertise of a European research group, industry partners and an end-user organisation together to offer a comprehensive set of transferable skills, which fuel a training program on smart sensing, advanced communication, data science and water engineering.
Projected outcomes
Using an array of smart technology sensors, IoT and AI techniques to provide real-time updates on the quality, quantity and demand for water, the project will monitor the pipe network across a section of United Utility’s jurisdiction. This will enable daily operations to be better coordinated and water losses to be identified more rapidly, ultimately resulting in water-saving and increased overall efficiency. By using smart metering and providing a complete analysis of water use and misuse across urban areas, there is also the potential to find new ways to provide accessible and affordable water to services users.
Funding
IOT4WIN has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 765921.
Projects
The work packages aligned to this project cover a variety of focusses, including:
