As true smart cities remain elusive, smart water solution systems can help establish a foundation and culture for smart-technology adoption.

While the idea of smart cities gained popularity in the early 2000s, few cities, apart from notable examples such as Singapore and Barcelona, have reached the status of being comprehensively “smart”.

“Using digital technology such as data and Internet-of-Things devices, we could bring order to urban chaos. It sounded very promising. Yet, two decades later, the results are still mixed,” explains global water solutions company Xylem WSS Africa, Middle East, Türkiye and India strategy and marketing manager Chetan Mistry.

While true smart cities are still uncommon, there are compartmentalised examples of smart-city advances, such as dynamic traffic lights in New York and smart energy grids in Shenzhen.

However, further smart advances can start with smartwater adoption, which has outpaced most other smart infrastructure initiatives because utilities can quantify the financial impact of leak reduction, pressure management and regulatory compliance.

The application of relatively simple and unobtrusive solutions, such as connecting smart meters to pipes to enable accurate, data-driven reporting, can encourage exploring other possibilities, including advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital twins.

Digitising water systems reduces nonrevenue water and operating costs, which is a prerequisite for any municipality attempting to modernise towards smartcity standards.

“Water infrastructure is often the first viable entry point for smartcity deployment because it delivers measurable economic outcomes such as lower nonrevenue water, reduced energy use in pumping and improved asset uptime.”

Further, smart buildings can support municipalities through common standards and integrated reporting systems.

“When multiple buildings adopt compatible smartwater technologies, municipalities gain access to standardised consumption and leakpattern data that strengthens planning and reduces system losses,” Mistry comments.

Smartwater systems generate actionable data that allows utilities and building owners to cut operating costs through leak detection, pressure optimisation and predictive maintenance.

Smart water is a combination of technologies such as sensors that monitor systems, data gathered from those sensors and software that turns the data into actionable knowledge. Smart meters automate meter reading and provide clear use metrics, he explains.

“A municipality’s effort to deliver on a smart-city strategy gains momentum once its residents appreciate the benefits,” he adds, citing data from the Global Infrastructure Hub, which outlines that implementing smart meters retroactively on buildings reduces their consumption by as much as 22%.

“Leak detection is another example, reducing water waste and motivating lower insurance premiums because of lower water damage risks.”

Digital monitoring and analytics detect leaks, pressure anomalies, pump stress, and early asset failure indicators on both distribution and treatment infrastructure. They also extend into renewables such as rainwater capture and grey water recycling.

Retrofittable sensors, telemetry and analytics can be layered onto existing pump and treatment assets, reducing upgrade costs and accelerating adoption.

“That can be on a brand-new development site or to enhance the city’s oldest building,” Mistry notes.

“Cities do not just respond to command and control. They are organic, impulsive and driven by different forces. But if we focus on making water smarter at the ground floor, among individual buildings, we will start creating smarter cities,” he concludes.