Page 523 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

4 Smart water management in cities

Water management is closely associated with water resource development and environmental
protection, and it also entails proper management of the demand for public services and cost
effectiveness. Consequently, urban water management must ensure access to water and sanitation
infrastructure and services, manage rain, waste and storm water as well as runoff pollution, mitigate
against floods, droughts and water borne diseases, while at the same time safeguarding the
resource from degradation. As identified in the previous section, accelerated urbanization,
especially in the developing world, coupled with increasing concerns for water security in the face
of climate change and aging infrastructure, have challenged the effective implementation of these
provisions. In today's integrated global economy, innovations in telecommunications have created
a valuable opportunity to address these water challenges within cities, whilst improving urban water
management.

Recognizing the challenges faced by the water sector, stakeholders from academia, corporations
and the ICT sector have developed water intelligence tools that use ICTs to alleviate global water
issues. The role played by smart water systems in optimizing the efficiency, effectiveness and
flexibility of water and wastewater infrastructure assets and their management constitutes a topic
of increasing attention, as evidenced in a recent OECD inventory of policies to promote and facilitate
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the diffusion of these technologies .
ICTs offer valuable opportunities to improve the productivity and efficiency within the water sector,
with the aim of contributing to the sustainability of the resource. These technologies allow the
continuous monitoring of water resources, providing real‐time monitoring and measuring, making
improvements in modelling and problem diagnosis, thus enabling proper maintenance and
optimization of all aspects of the water network.
The increasing availability of more intelligent, ICT‐enabled means to manage and protect the
planet's water resources has led to the development of smart water management (SWM). The SWM
approach promotes the sustainable consumption of water resources through co‐ordinated water
management, by integrating ICT products, solutions and systems, aimed at maximizing the socio‐
economic welfare of a society without compromising the environment. SWM can be applied to
multiple sectors (e.g. industries, agriculture) and urban environments.
In cities, SWM strives to achieve three main goals through the utilization of ICTs, namely: (a) co‐
ordinated water resource management and distribution, (b) enhanced environmental protection,
and (c) sustainable provision of public services and economic efforts.
Within urban environments, the implementation of SWM can make significant improvements in
water distribution, helping to decrease losses due to non‐revenue water, and helping to enhance
waste‐ water and storm water management. Figure 6 illustrates the role of SWM water quality and
reliability, ensuring proper management of green systems, decreasing water loss due to leakage,
reducing operational costs, and improving customer control and choice. These improvements
increase the efficiency of the water sector, while contributing to its economic sustainability since
municipalities and water utilities are better able to recover costs from non‐revenue water, including
the detection of illegal connections.

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 513