ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 295 The deployment of smart meters within an urban infrastructure enables remote accessibility of consumption data which improves meter reading and billing, detection of leaks, illegal connections and tamper alerts, as well as enhances the determination of peak demand. Customer and provider relationships are improved through increased communication and consumers are also equipped to options to change payment methods (e.g., Prepaid or Post‐paid). Moreover smart metering allows the water utilities to provide clear, water consumption information which can help customers to track and control their water usage and thereby see immediate savings on their bills thereby enabling better distribution network and consumption planning due to the real‐time monitoring capabilities. Figure 53 – Smart meter technologies Source: http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/smart‐meter‐introduction.aspx GIS integration can improve data management especially of large volume projects. GIS provides high quality result display especially in hydraulic simulation modelling and provides additional analysis useful for decision support. GIS allows visualization and analysis of data about water resources/issues and human activity by linking geographic information with descriptive information. This is highly valuable to the urban water management in assessing water quality and day to day operations on a local and regional scale. However, its benefits are not limited to that as urban issues such flooding can also be mitigated by the use of GIS by providing information on critical areas which are at a risk of flooding. This is necessary in developing hazard maps as well as development of emergency response planning. GIS utilization offers more robust analysis, increased efficiency and reduced costs. By integrating information from resource satellites, GIS can cover large river basins which some cities occupy. Combined with local rainfall patterns, meteorological and hydrological data, as well as drainage systems, GIS improve urban storm water management by strengthening drainage management and enhance rainwater reuse. This helps to reduce the prevalence of urban flooding which is increasing in cities since the development of infrastructure in cities has created large expanses of impermeable earth.