292 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications From a general point of view, SMW has two main functions: Sensing: This involves the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology for sensing and intelligent monitoring to achieve business related data and centralized management such as water quality monitoring, ship scheduling in rivers, etc.; Intelligent scheduling: Water resource could be sensed by the IoT integrated system to make decisions on flood control and drought prevention; intelligent management of water environment; and intelligent management of water distributions. Steps have been made to improve the capabilities of the information technology needed for flood and drought decision, water environment treatment, and water resources management. In particular, smart metering technologies will play an important role in the real‐time measurement of water consumption, identifying leaks at the consumer level and raising more awareness to consumers on water consumption. With the development of sensors of active outlet, the web of semantic sensors, the geoweb, the geographic modelling in 3D, and mobile communications, this field has great potential for water authorities. Smart Water Management in Cities36 In today's integrated global economy and innovations in telecommunications, have created a massive opportunity in utilities to assist in addressing management water challenges within cities and urban water management. The recognition of the challenges in the water sector have created intelligent tools which use ICTs to alleviate global water issues. These technologies create tremendous opportunities to improve the productivity and efficiency within the water sector with an aim to generate sustainability of the resource. ICTs permit the continuous monitoring of water resources, providing real time monitoring and measuring, making improvements in modelling and by extension problems diagnosis, enabling proper maintenance and optimization all aspects of the water network. An opportunity for more intelligent means to manage and protect the planet's water resources has led to the development of Smart Water Management (SMW). Smart Water Management increases the efficiency of the water sector while ensuring its economic sustainability since municipalities and water utilities are better able to recover costs from non‐revenue water and are better able to detect illegal connections. Smart Water Management tools fall into the main areas listed below. However it should be noted that the examples provided are not confined only to the areas represented but may overlap several areas as seen in Figure 48. 1 Data acquisition & integration; (e.g., sensor networks, smart pipes, smart meters etc.); 2 Data dissemination; (e.g., Radio transmitters, WIFI, Internet etc.); 3 Modelling and analytics; (e.g., GIS, MikeURBAN, Aquacycle, AISUWRS, and UGROW etc.); 4 Data processing and Storage; (e.g., SaaS, Cloud computing, etc.); 5 Management and Control; (e.g., SCADA, optimization tools, etc.); 6 Visualization and decision support; (e.g., Web‐based communication and Information systems tools etc.). ____________________ 36 Extracted from the document SSC‐0122‐rev3 \"Technical Report on Smart Water Management for Smart Sustainable Cities\"