Smart Campus Water Monitoring System

A smart water monitoring system has been implemented at the NUS Kent Ridge Campus since May 2017 to provide real-time, online monitoring of the campus potable water distribution system. The WaterWiSe system, as it is known, uses a network of 11 wireless sensors which continuously monitor the hydraulic and water quality conditions in the water pipes, providing data for a variety of applications.

The system reduces water losses by detecting the occurrence of leaks or underground pipe bursts through continuous measurements of fluid pressures and acoustics. It uses data analytics to detect and localise these events in real-time. Alerts are then sent directly to the Office of Facilities Management for follow up.

To monitor the water quality across the campus, the system includes online measurements of pH, oxidation reduction potential, conductivity and turbidity.

Data from the smart sensor network is also made available to NUS researchers and students for on-going research and educational purposes, for example to develop new methods of online measurement inside water pipes, and to enable projects involving the application of online monitoring data and the operation and performance of the water distribution system.

The technology was developed by researchers at the Centre for Environmental Sensing and Modelling (CENSAM), an interdisciplinary research group of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), which is affiliated to NUS.

This system has also been deployed island-wide by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and exported to more than 15 cities in Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Europe.