Data Driven Monitoring of IOT enabled Water Distribution Networks

Abstract

Real time monitoring capabilities of many domestic water networks are still very limited. This could lead to several direct and indirect issues such as inability to detect leaks leading to wastage of water, failure to identify over usage and exploitation of water by certain end nodes in the system, non-equitable supply of water and abnormalities like pipe volume reduction due to scaling and deposition of silt in pipelines. Since water networks are expected to operate for several decades, these issues lead to large uncertainty in the quantity of the water being supplied and utilised by any community. The present work proposes a system for monitoring the water supply system with the help of Internet of Things (IoT) where sensors and free spectrum communication techniques measure, transmit, store and analyse parameters of interest like flow, level and vibration. Here we make use of easily available and economically feasible sensing techniques like ultrasonic level sensors, hall effect based flow sensors and 3 axis gyroscope based vibration sensors. Suitable communication modules based on free spectrum transmission techniques like HC-12 and LoRa are utilised for transmitting the data from the sensor nodes. This work emphasizes the use of non-intrusive sensing methods, thereby reducing the difficulties arising due to disruption in water supply during installation and maintenance of the system. Low-cost monitoring capabilities and scalability are inherent advantages of the proposed work.