516 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications When applied to cities, the availability of reliable data to enhance operations can improve decision‐making at multiple levels. Many innovative ICT tools have been developed in support of next‐generation urban water infrastructure systems, helping to improve performance, increase efficiency, and reduce costs, decrease redundancy, and lower environmental impacts, among others. Some of these smart technologies are explained below: a. Smart pipes and sensor networks Smart pipes incorporate multifunctional sensors that can sense strain, temperature and pressure anomalies, as well as measure water flow and quality during service, to provide operators with continuous monitoring and inspection features, while assuring safer water supply distribution. Connecting smart pipes with a wireless processor and antenna enables data to be transferred directly to a command centre, providing water managers with the tools needed to detect and locate potential leaks in real time. Smart pipes were initially developed for the transportation of oil, gas and hazardous liquids. Over the years, their applicability to water networks has slowly been realized. New research and development in prototypes for water distribution are needed to continue to advance public water supply systems26. Wireless sensor networks provide the technology for cities to more accurately monitor, and sometimes control, their water supply systems intricately using different parameters. Examples include sensors with the ability to analyse the acoustic signature of a pipe or to monitor soil moisture and detect leaks (e.g. if the ground is absorbing water, it could be an indication of a pipe leak; if the minimum daily noise is increasing it also means that a small leak was recently created). Many ICT companies are developing a wide range of sensors specifically designed for water networks. Some smart sensors can detect flow rates down to 0,3 m3/hr (5 liters/minute), enabling early‐leak detection and thus reducing the risk of pipe break. The system reports pipe flow measurement data with pressure and acoustic measurement, combines this information to GIS data and sends automatic alerts to identify the location of possible leaks, thus allowing the prioritization of repair work. Sensors can also be incorporated to optimize the water used in irrigation, measuring parameters such as air temperature, air humidity, soil temperature, soil moisture, leaf wetness, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation, trunk/stem/fruit diameter, wind speed/direction, and rainfall. Urban applications range from park irrigation to commercial irrigation systems, enabling better management and a more accurate allocation of water resources between sectors. Sensors can also be incorporated to assess the water quality of surface water, as well as treated water sewage within cities. Currently, many monitoring tasks (e.g. sampling the chemical condition of water, sediments, or fish tissue for quality assessments) are still conducted manually, requiring human resources for sampling and further lab analysis. In addition to the cost of maintaining such monitoring programs, there are difficulties associated with the provision of effective warnings due to the lag time between data retrieval and data assessment. To overcome these problems, more and more water quality monitoring programs are striving to deliver on‐line (and sometimes real‐time) water quality monitoring. Smart sensor networks for in situ monitoring are being utilized to improve water resource and wastewater management. Such sensors are the core of these systems, which perform the online measurement of the fundamental parameters of water quality including pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, ammonia, phosphorus, nitrate, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and metal ions, etc.