IBM to use Big Data for managing Bangalore's water supply

Technology giant IBM today said it has tied up with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to create systems for monitoring and managing increasingly complex water distribution systems using 'Big Data and Analytics'.
Working closely with BWSSB, IBM created a command centre to monitor the water flow in 284 of 784 bulk flow meters in the city to give a single view of the functioning of all the bulk flow meters, amount of water transmitted, water supplied to individual parts of the distribution system, among others.
"IBM worked closely with BWSSB to create an operational dashboard, based on IBM Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC), which serves as a 'command centre' for monitoring, administering and managing the city's water supply networks," the company said in a statement.

The IOC-based solution, developed by IBM India Software Lab, contains GIS (Geo Information System) for Bangalore to enable a real-time view of flow meters, along with the ability to zoom in and out and pan and click on a specific flow meter, it added.
When an asset (GLR or flow meter) is selected, a user can have a view of the key performance indicators (KPIs) like latest flow rate, total flow in 24 hours and the average total flow over past seven days, as well as geographical location and time of last update, IBM said.
"Around 45 per cent of the water supplied by the BWSSB goes unaccounted and implementing this solution helps minimise unaccounted for water by detecting large changes in water flow, through real-time monitoring," BWSSB (New Initiatives and Design Cell) Executive Engineer P N Ravindra said.

BWSSB is responsible for water distribution and sewage management in Bangalore.

Bangalore's massive population growth from a mere 5.4 million in 2000 to over 10 million and counting today has put tremendous strain on the city's water supply and distribution systems, IBM said..
The main sources of water (Cauvery and Arkavathi rivers) are not just sufficient to meet the water demand in the city to a permissible per capita norms, it added.
This leads to a big challenge in equitable distribution of available water across the divisions/subdivisions, which IBM's solutions will provide to the authorities.