Published
by Charles Sellers, Managing Director at Vantage Point Technologies Ltd
I'm looking for innovative solutions in water use, recycling, waste etc which could be adopted in developing a smart water city.
These innovations would be implemented into a new 2,000 smart homes. We are implementing in Garden Village/city in the North East of England for homes, retail and commercial buildings, including the urban environment and infrastructure.
Which technologies do you suggest as most efficient, used and proven to be the best?
I guess pricing of water is still one of the smartes things to do: everything cheap will lead to waste. So putting the price up and make people aware of water use and costs will result in action. there are a lot of ways now to reduce wateruse, and monitor this (on your smart device). Also flushing the toilet with rain water, stored, recycling, local waste water treatment and disconnecting from the sewer... all helps. So best Smart tech is activating the homo calculus urbanus....
Our company proposes an innovative tool to improve the communication between water managers and citizens. The application is cloud-based, where the citizens have access to geolocalized information on water: drinking water quality in their sector, display on a map of all events affecting water quality (construction, flush, use of fire hydrants, etc.) and alerts or advisories. All these are presented with educational content to better understand and use water. The same platform also serves to collect citizens' (geolocalized) complaints and observations, which is directly transferred to the manager's database. Hence, water managers can rapidly have an overview on the distribution system with the sampling points (and their data) and complaints. This allows a more efficient data and complaint management and increases confidence of citizens.
I attach a description of one of our projects, implemented in Québec City. Please feel free to contact me (ascheili@watershedmonitoring.com) to further discuss about smart water cities!
We are delivering Hyperlocal Rainfall predictions to a number of councils and also to Water Utilities and there is a lot of potential for Smart Cities. Hyperlocal Rainfall is location specific rainfall predictions based on real time radar rainfall data. Essentially we track the path of each cell over the ext hour to we generate 12 x 5 minute predictions for each cell and the whole lot is refreshed every 5 minutes. Main uses are sustainable transport (encouraging cycling) but also opportunities to reduce garden watering, save energy by drying clothes outside and much more. http://www.meniscus.co.uk/hyperlocal-rainfall/
The San Diego County Water Authority is currently running 4 local pilots on an optical AMI solution that appears promising. The technology has proven to work, providing meter reads as advertised and identified households with leaks on the customer side of the meter. The installation time appears to be much faster and product cost should be much lower than conventional AMI. Please contact me if you would like additional information. Gary Eaton, Chief Innovation Officer, San Diego County Water Authority (858) 522-6793.
One of the great problem of water management is invisible water leakage in the house holds and other tap water users address.
So for this critical problem still there is no any technological solution which are can to use and possible to control the located problem.
The existing technological instruments are using for detection after water wasting and also there are asking professional skills.
But my new innovative technological devices which is named (Water save one)
Can avoid the previous problems like invisible leakage and contamination control .
It is daily follow up system and also not required additional professional support.
Now at a time I can manufacture prototype and also finishing pilot test by domestic regional level with best results and ready to join to local market.
So how can I get support from any interested partners to work at global level?
One of the great problem of water management is invisible water leakage in the house holds and other tap water users address.
So for this critical problem still there is no any technological solution which are can to use and possible to control the located problem.
The existing technological instruments are using for detection after water wasting and also there are asking professional skills.
But my new innovative technological devices which is named (Water save one)
Can avoid the previous problems like invisible leakage and contamination control .
It is daily follow up system and also not required additional professional support.
Now at a time I can manufacture prototype and also finishing pilot test by domestic regional level with best results and ready to join to local market.
So how can I get support from any interested partners to work at global level?
One of the great problem of water management is invisible water leakage in the house holds and other tap water users address.
So for this critical problem still there is no any technological solution which are can to use and possible to control the located problem.
The existing technological instruments are using for detection after water wasting and also there are asking professional skills.
But my new innovative technological devices which is named (Water save one)
Can avoid the previous problems like invisible leakage and contamination control .
It is daily follow up system and also not required additional professional support.
Now at a time I can manufacture prototype and also finishing pilot test by domestic regional level with best results and ready to join to local market.
So how can I get support from any interested partners to work at global level?
There is an innovative way to up-cycling wastewater; it is a unique technique where you mix organic waste with the wastewater, all together in the same flow, a natural depuration system with a previous anaerobic bio-digestion: no odours, no sludges, no fuels, no emissions, only positive externalities.
José Luis Peraza Cano, is an outsider engineer, every wetland he designs is ad hoc , always adapted to the environment and the demands of the community. In some way he designs resilient engineering.
I've done this type of work at Anglian Water for a number of years now and without knowing your project the biggest blocker to innovation in the UK is payback if that is your driver. Water Regs are pretty strict as well so make sure your in constant contact with the local water company especially for grey water systems in domestic properties. AW are very hot on compliance for this. All needs to be WRc approved etc....
After all the normal water efficient devices best to concentrate on extensive monitoring- look at the Cello V6 which can provide live alerts and data via online presentment like Watercore. Pressure management on rising main and flow control on all outlets. Rainwater harvesting for retail only and check the local water company doesn't charge return for this if used for domestic purposes. I've done many wastewater recycling projects but only for our key accounts as you really need substantial amounts of process water for this to be viable
In India, particularly, in the Nagpur city, we are using one technology where we are producing electricity from the wastewater. We have installed one plant in the waste dumping yard and operating to recycling process. You can use this technology to make smart water city.
Dude, look me up on LinkedIn or send me an email globalian@rocketmail.com seeing I've recently drawn working plans for 1000 people sub division that could accommodate your 2,000 homes, as cost was about $10 million that saw roads included whilst self reliant structure Energy:H2O while production of 1 ton of green produce grown each week off a 2 acre estate all. NO DREAM neither.
I have new innovative technological solution for drinking water saveing systems from invisible leakage and contamination control for each house holds and other tap water users.the technological solution is new in the field and also the world water sector.
So am very happy to work from any of interested global partners.
Hello Charles - I've been studying this water use technology topic as part of a client project...the most advanced I was able to find so far that is integrating in-home, environment and infrastructure is the Aquarevo project in Melbourne, Australia - a logical place to find advanced thinking and investment in the field, given this part of the world already lives at the sharper edge of the scarcity crisis. The caveat is that this project is in the process of becoming real in 2017 (the plot was massively over-subscribed at the end of 2016, they were all "Go" at the start of this year for construction) - I know you are looking for an operational and measurable impact...this one is the most advanced I could find with theoretical 70% reductions in mains water usage (and grandiose ambitions to go off-grid), but perhaps it might be a little "too" advanced for what you need given it is not finished yet.
It looks at:
A rainwater tank in each home that directly supplies hot water services for all non-drinking household uses.
Tank Talk - a rainwater management technology that uses weather forecast data to optimise water storage and reduce stormwater run-off
OneBox - a pressurised sewerage network technology that transfers waste based on network volumes, requiring smaller pipes and less excavation
An onsite grey water treatment plant, which supplies the development with Class A recycled water, suitable for washing machines, toilets and outdoor use
Promoting an ability to share water between communities as a mundane event, with real-time smart controls and based on demand/supply balancing
Each home can monitor via the app all water use and energy use at different levels of time granularity, and it can be scaled at admin level to view different areas from home up to total community to zero in on waste.
Dumping stores proactively into garden irrigation/sewers well ahead of storms increasing storm drain capacity (flooding being nearly as big a problem as scarcity).
Green and Blue "corridors" as a key innovation blending water infrastructure and environmental urban forest, designing street layouts, vegetation, tree canopies, topography and home structures to support the management of evaporation, rain run-off, temperature and supporting water storage above and below ground.
Sounds like a superb topic, and I like that this is a UK project. Having had some of the worst pipe leakage rates globally in the UK due to complacency over rainfall and groundwater levels, and only recent efforts to start addressing this (and typically being a culture that is very casual about water waste as we are), this is a positive signal, thanks for sharing.
I suggest a Zero energy Biological Treatment System followed by a reed bed to treat water for reuse as well as grow vegetables/flowers and fruits utilizing the nutrients in the waste water. It requires no electricity, can be driven by gravity, provides clean potable water after treatment by microbes and root zone. Very little sludge is formed in the holding tanks. Please see if we can work together. We are presently implementing a similar system on a Drain in a major Town in Andhra Pradesh, India and are successful.
Aquarius is a leading provider of advanced leak detection solutions for water loss reduction, burst prevention, pipe condition assessment, optimizing maintenance & operational costs.
Our products are currently monitoring more than 2,000 km of water pipes around the world helping major water utilities reduce their NRW and M&O cost by using fixed & mobile acoustic sensors. Please take a look here: www.aquarius-spectrum.com
Education. Children's education is the most important as they are going to inherit the Smart Cities. AWWA's Internationalized version of Kids' book : Water Wonderful (Age 5 -10) will be published soon. It teaches kids to value the water. Treat it as a resource and not as a commodity, in a very simple dialogues with fun-filled pictures.