With the development of economy, the contradiction with the shortage of water resources is increasingly prominent. In China, the average gap between production and sales of water plants nationwide is as high as 30 percent. In water-scarce cities in central and western China, it exceeds 45 percent, and in some cities in the northeast, it exceeds 50 percent. The economic value of water leakage in urban water networks is more than 20 billion yuan. Smart water construction is not only the key to solve the shortage of water resources in China, but also the key to smart city construction.

Smart water is the inevitable outcome of smart city development. The academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have outlined the concept of smart water with the definition of water networking. That is, through a variety of information sensing equipment, measuring hydrological and water quality and other water elements, transmitted to the Internet, information exchange and communication, to achieve intelligent identification of information, positioning, tracking, monitoring, computing, management, simulation, forecasting and management.

The value of smart water to government, society and consumers is that it will maximize the ability of water companies to respond to emergencies, including emergency repairs to water networks and water quality monitoring. By modeling, water companies can make more precise calculations of the pressure in the water supply network, more scientific distribution of water pressure in different communities, high-rise building water pressure will be greatly reduced.

The high standards and high demands of the people on water resources and water environment can not be met by traditional means alone. In order to solve the environmental problems of the new era, it is necessary to introduce a new round of information technology revolution with higher ideas, stricter standards, more effective measures and more smooth mechanisms, it is necessary to introduce the new concept of“Smart water” and new technologies such as Internet of things and cloud computing to meet the new era of economic development and residents' lives, so that it can truly meet the needs of economic and social development, adapt to the wishes of the people.

Smart water development prospects analysis, since the“Water 10” issued, to improve the quality of water environment as the core of water pollution prevention and control actions are being carried out nationwide. With this, smart water has become a hot market mining. However, neither the government nor the relevant associations have come up with a clear definition of smart water. At the same time, the current situation of water supply and water management problems, but let the development of smart water can not wait.

To solve the leakage needs a comprehensive production and marketing difference management and leakage control system. Under the influence of new technological change, the development of intelligent water is not only necessary to control leakage, but also very useful. From the development of new technology, it should be said that smart water has become the direction of water management. But while the benefits of smart water are promising, many specific obstacles need to be overcome for its development. Some Chinese water companies, for example, are confused about the concept of smart water, some are quick to invest in it, and some are still waiting. At the same time, how some public data resources are opened and shared in an orderly manner, and the coordination among the regulatory authorities also need to be further studied.

According to the report on Smart Water Industry Trends and investment strategy released by the Institute of forward-looking industry, investment in water industry increased at an average annual rate of 24% during the 12th five-year plan period. In 2016, annual investment in China's water sector reached 496.352 billion yuan, a conservative estimate of 527.678 billion yuan in 2017. It is forecasted that the annual investment of water industry in our country will reach about 870 billion yuan by the 2023, and with the increase of water investment scale, the development of smart water industry will usher in the golden period.

Source: collated by Prospective Industry Research Institute

Source: collated by Prospective Industry Research Institute

This article is reprinted from China Water Network and does not represent the platform's views.