Challenges in Water Management Series
Editor:
Justin Taberham
Independent Consultant and Environmental Advisor, London, UK
Titles in the series:
Smart Water Technologies and Techniques: Data Capture and Analysis for Sustainable Water Management
David A. Lloyd Owen
2018
ISBN: 978-1-119-07864-7
Handbook of Knowledge Management for Sustainable Water Systems
Meir Russ
2018
ISBN: 978-1-119-27163-5
Industrial Water Resource Management: Challenges and Opportunities for Corporate Water Stewardship
Pradip K. Sengupta
2017
ISBN: 978-1-119-27250-2
Water Resources: A New Water Architecture
Alexander Lane, Michael Norton and Sandra Ryan
2017
ISBN: 978-1-118-79390-9
Urban Water Security
Robert C. Brears
2016
ISBN:978-1-119-13172-4
This edition first published 2018
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The World Bank in 2014 noted:
‘Water is one of the most basic human needs. With impacts on agriculture, education, energy, health, gender equity, and livelihood, water management underlies the most basic development challenges. Water is under unprecedented pressures as growing populations and economies demand more of it. Practically every development challenge of the 21st century – food security, managing rapid urbanization, energy security, environmental protection, adapting to climate change – requires urgent attention to water resources management.
Yet already, groundwater is being depleted faster than it is being replenished and worsening water quality degrades the environment and adds to costs. The pressures on water resources are expected to worsen because of climate change. There is ample evidence that climate change will increase hydrologic variability, resulting in extreme weather events such as droughts floods, and major storms. It will continue to have a profound impact on economies, health, lives, and livelihoods. The poorest people will suffer most.’
It is clear there are numerous challenges in water management in the 21st Century. In the 20th Century, most elements of water management had their own distinct set of organisations, skill sets, preferred approaches and professionals. The overlying issue of industrial pollution of water resources was managed from a ‘point source’ perspective.
However, it has become accepted that water management has to be seen from a holistic viewpoint and managed in an integrated manner. Our current key challenges include:
This series highlights cutting‐edge material in the global water management sector from a practitioner as well as an academic viewpoint. The issues covered in this series are of critical interest to advanced level undergraduates and Masters Students as well as industry, investors and the media.
Justin Taberham, CEnv
Series Editor
www.justintaberham.com
My involvement with smart water stems from a project examining smart water policy drivers for the OECD (Lloyd Owen, 2012a) and as part of a more general study on urban water services (Lloyd Owen, 2012b). These considered the evolution of smart water as a concept and in reality especially between 2011 and 2012.
‘Smart water’ is not a theory, let alone a paradigm. Rather, it is a catch‐all expression that covers real or near real‐time data collection, transmission and interpretation for improving the delivery of water and wastewater services and optimising the performance of the assets that are used for these. This study is practical in nature, outlining what smart water means from various water management perspectives and how it has been developed and deployed to date. Much of the information is derived from conference presentations and articles in water sector publications rather than academic publications. This book is neither a technical nor an academic study. Instead, it considers smart water’s potential to address a range of challenges currently facing water and wastewater management worldwide. Market drivers are reviewed along with the markets themselves, their size, growth and social, regulatory and environmental drivers. This book considers how the practicalities and prospects of smart water as perceived in 2016–17.
Making technologies work matters. Despite considerable regulatory, financial and political support, slower than anticipated development of practical energy storage has delayed the widespread adoption of electric cars by more than two decades. Smart water hardware development has not seen such technical setbacks. The challenge for commercialising innovation in smart water lies in raising funds and encouraging its adoption in an inherently conservative sector.
The most notable change since 2011–12 has been in the way smart technologies are being applied. The rapid and hitherto unexpected rise of smart phones for example has transformed the scope for mobile smart water monitoring and analytics. In developing economies, this may bring about truly disruptive changes. If a second edition of this book is published at some point in the future, the changes and their impact in those countries are likely to be appreciably greater than those that have been experienced to date.
Another change since 2011–12 is the gradual replacement of theories with realities. A difficult investment climate has meant that a significant number of intriguing innovations seen in 2011–12 have fallen by the wayside. Some of this can be seen as the natural consequence of attrition, yet there is always the fear that genuinely useful innovations can be lost during a particularly hard period for early‐stage companies. A contrary point of view would be that products and services which can reach commercial viability under these circumstances may have the potential to offer a real and lasting benefit to utilities and their customers alike, having proved themselves in such a testing environment. It is also noticeable that despite many setbacks and the usual challenges in bridging the gap between blithe optimism and cooler realities, smart technologies and their applications are being more widely adopted.
Industrial water will only be covered in passing. Given that industrial clients are usually more open to innovation than municipal clients, as they are driven by the need to carry out processes in the most efficient manner, this may appear to be anomalous. This is in part due to the fact that industrial facilities are regarded as stand‐alone entities, rather than being parts of networks, even when they are connected to municipal supplies. Their operations are relatively compact and most water and effluent assets operate above ground, making physical inspections more effective. As industry is driven by the need to be efficient in order to be competitive; smart applications that can improve the value generated by each unit of water consumed will be adopted where needed.
Smart water is evolving in an appreciably faster manner than is usually seen for the development and deployment of goods and services associated with drinking water provision and sewerage and sewage treatment. As a book, this is therefore a child of its time. It aims to present how various goods and services were being developed and deployed at the time of its writing in 2015–17, in the context of the author’s experience with the concept since 2011.
An overview of the ‘trajectory’ of the deployment of smart water products is offered through examining third‐party surveys (Chapters 1 and 7) as to their future extent, and at the end there is an attempt to suggest where the various initiatives that have been described could lead us, in terms of a truly integrated water and wastewater management system.
This book would not have been possible without the support, insights and information that a wide variety of people have given me.
Xavier Leflavie and Gerard Bonnis oversaw my project for the OECD in 2011–2012. Sophie Treemolet and Bill Kingdom managed a project on capital efficiency at the World Bank in 2016–17 which provided insights into the potential for smart water in developing economies.
Three organisations have been of particular value in organising conferences dedicated to smart water: The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), the UK’s professional body for water engineers; SWAN (Smart Water Networks) Forum, a UK based organisation dedicated to developing smart water; and SMi, a conference company that has hosted a series of smart water events. Presentations at their events have been indispensable for developing the case studies. Mark Lane at Pinsent Masons also deserves thanks for the ‘Wet Network’ events he has organised over the past decade along with support from Arup. Oliver Grievson (Anglian Water) has been a great evangelist for smart water as has Global Water Intelligence’s Christopher Gasson, who has combined this with his desire to improve the quality of information about what remains a poorly understood business. Thanks are also due to Bruce Moeller (Aquaspy), David Henderson (XPV Capital), Professor Asit Biswas (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS Singapore), Rob Wylie (WHEB), Jim Winpenny (Wynchwood), Michael Chuter (Pump Aid), Jack Jones (Sanivation), Philippe Rohner, Arnaud Bisschop, Simon Gottelier and March‐Oliver Buffle (Pictet Asset Management), James Hotchkies (JWH), Michael Deane (NAWC) and many others. Finally, Justin Taberham suggested that I write this book.