Taking the UK’s Victorian waterworks into the digital era

Improving ageing Victorian water systems so that they can meet the UK's growing needs will be the focus of a new £1.7 million partnership, announced today. Imperial College London and the telecommunication company NEC Corporation are establishing a Smart Water Systems Lab at the College, which will develop new technologies to monitor the UK's water infrastructure and optimise how the resource is managed - bringing it into the digital era. In a five-year collaboration, researchers at the Lab will develop smart sensors and data analysis tools engineered to monitor and control water flow and pressure in pipes. This system will also extensively use NEC's Cloud Services and crowd sourcing (e.g. Twitter) to enhance its decision making. Scientists Ivan Stoianov and Julie McCann at the Smart Water Systems Lab are developing sensors, as small as matchboxes, which contain computer hardware that processes information to direct changes in the water pipes to optimise water pressure and thereby minimise leaks. The research will draw on the expertise from across the College including researchers from the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computing, Bioengineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Imperial's Business School.