Page 543 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

 Improved services: Smart metering can improve the relationship between the water utilities
and the customers by providing more transparent water consumption information. Improved
monitoring and operations prevents supply interruptions and disruptions within the water
distribution network, for example, in the event of sewerage and storm water overflows. Better
management relieves pressure on water resources that may be scarce during periods of drought.

 Improved wastewater management: These benefits are associated to improvements in the
performance and economic efficiency of the wastewater treatment, as well as enhanced
monitoring that helps prevent infrastructure overload.

 More efficient treatment: Improved water quality monitoring throughout the systems utilizing
sensors creates the possibility of source control of resource pollutants and the use of natural
systems, thus reducing the potential treatment required for water supply systems, or the
separation of specific pollutants in wastewater.

 Environmental protection and enhancement: Reduced demand and improved environmental
monitoring helps to maintain and restore ecosystems that rely on a healthy aquatic
environment.

 Reduced carbon emissions: Improved management results in less energy consumed for the
abstraction, treatment and distribution process of water resources, thus helping to reduce a
city's carbon footprint.

 Flood control and storm water management: Improved weather awareness and prediction
through weather intelligence allows cities to plan more effectively their flood prevention
strategies, as well as to manage urban drainage systems and storm waters accordingly.

 Greater resilience: Reliable data reduces inaccurate forecasts and predictions, as well as the
uncertainty surrounding future demand and supply availability, thus improving decision‐making
for water investments and strategies. Improved operational control and monitoring can also
help to prioritize infrastructure maintenance. At the same time, improved decision‐making
strengthens the capacity of centralized sewers and treatment facilities to cope with the
pressures of urbanization.

8 Gaps to be addressed

It is imperative that urban water managers adopt appropriate water intelligence within their various
management systems, and develop the capacity needed to realize the full potential of ICT tools in
this field. Numerous experiences suggest that smart water management tools can be easily
integrated. However, the current approach and lack of standardization within this sector may foster
future problems of interoperability and reliability of SWM tools, possibly preventing future
integration of system solutions. Added to this, improper policy development spearheads vendor
and/or technology deadlocks.
These challenges could hinder the proper implementation of SWM tools in cities around the world.
Some of the challenges mentioned throughout this analysis are discussed in further depth in the ITU
40
and UNESCO's publication "Partnering for Solutions" , including the lack of technological
standardization, proper ICT governance, policies, incentives/funding, business case and models
(customer propositions/pricing/availability, value for water utility, etc.), co‐operation and
collaboration between stakeholders (water utilities, urban planners, policy makers, governments,
municipalities, academia, ICT companies, public, etc.), focus placed on privacy/security/encryption,

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 533