French Pilot - Use Case 1: Sewer network monitoring - Use Case 2: Smart watering in green space
Sustainability Aspects: Data-driven Strategies for Water & Waste Management in Critical Infrastructures
Targeted Vertical: Water management
Partner:
- GreenCityzen: Use case Leader
- Eurecom: Testbed provider
- Thales Six GTS France: Developer & Integrator
The French pilot consists of 2 Uses Cases focusing on sewer network monitoring and smart watering in green space.
Use Case 1: Sewer Network Monitoring
Motivation and challenges:
Drains are the entry points for rainwater into the sewerage system. To help the absorption of this water, gutters are mainly free of entry and therefore not protected against waste abandoned in the streets and gutters. Consequently, waste can accumulate inside the gullies and cause various nuisances: a) hydraulic nuisance where waste can clog up the drain, preventing it from properly channeling rainwater and thus causing flooding; b) functional nuisance where the waste can clog the screens located on network and at entrance to the plant, causing a risk of discharge of polluted water into the natural environment and therefore of non-compliance; c) pollution nuisance where waste accumulated in the drains and networks can be remobilized and transported to the natural environment during rainfall, contributing to the pollution of the harbour and coastline.
Solutions/Trial scenarios to address the challenges
In this case (Figure 1), sensors are deployed in the network to monitor proper functioning of networks, detect waste and help to manage the cleaning. The objectives are to a) increase operating performance; b) reduce inundation risk; c) reduce waste in the environment (rivers, seas, oceans).
Figure 1: Rain and sewer network. Detection of the waste volume in the rain network
Use Case 2: Smart watering in green space
Motivation and challenges:
Intelligent watering consists in conditioning watering of green spaces (action), based on plants’ actual need for water (measurement). Solutions combine centralized watering technologies and soil moisture sensors to significantly reduce water consumption and preserve quality of green spaces.
Solutions/Trial scenarios to address the challenges
In this case, sensors and actuators are deployed to monitor the water reserve available in soil, the water pressure and flow in network, and to control the precision watering through electro valve. The main objectives are a) water resources preservation; b) deep root development; c) reduction of carbon travel; d) reduction of urban heat.
Figure 2: Smart watering principle in greenspace
The main 6G-VERSUS application components for both use cases are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: 6G-VERSUS application components for French Use Cases
| V-apps | Operational and executive dashboards providing insights on KPIs and alerts. In detail, a smart watering dashboard will display water volume saving and level of evapotranspiration cooling. The sewer network dashboard will indicate the rate of clean drains, volume of collected waste and number of saved travels. |
|---|---|
| AI-apps | (1) maximize energy efficiency with minimal bandwidth resources; (2) reduce number of sensors deployed on field and eventually increase economic and environmental ROI; (3) predict amount of waste in gullies. The model will be calibrated using actual measurements in under-sampled gullies. |
| N-Apps | New 5G IoT devices will be used, based on 5G RedCap technology. Network exposure function via NEF is used to better manage the devices: improved reliability, latency, energy consumption for enhanced water network operation. |
As sustainability is of vital importance in 6G-VERSUS, the main sustainability challenges are summarized together with the expected outcomes of this use case in Table 2.
Table 2: Main sustainability challenges and expected outcomes for French use cases.
| Main Sustainability Challenges |
|---|
| 1) UC1 addresses the subject of wastewater overflow to reduce river and ocean contamination |
| 2) UC2 allows to preserve between 50 and 70% of water consumption when compared to former practices. |
| 3)UC1/UC2 address the significant reduction of interventions and travel. Leading to decarbonated operations. |
| 4) Expectation to demonstrate during the project, the reduction of carbon footprint for the full solution |
| Expected Outcomes |
| 1) Increase performance in water network management through a) Increased autonomy of sensors and actuators; b) Increased cognitive capacity in operation support tool; c) Increase security and reliability in connectivity |
| 2) Demonstrated ROI on end-to-end water saving and carbon emission saving |
| 3) Reduction of e-waste streams through circularity, reusable and energy-optimized hardware |
| 4) Virtuous business model based on usage |