Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Water management variables registration system based on smartphone pictures.

Country of Origin: Netherlands
Reference Number: TONL20161108001
Publication Date: 11 November 2016

Summary

A small Dutch high-tech company has developed a smart and cost-effective monitoring system to support the management of water resources. Water variables (flow, levels, usage) are registered by taking a picture with a smartphone. The pictures are then processed by proprietary pattern recognition software resulting in the required management information. The Dutch partner is offering a commercial agreement with technical assistance to partners active in water management and water organisations.

Description

The Dutch partner is a spin-off of a university of technology in the Netherlands. The company was founded in 2012 and consists of a team with field and scientific expertise in operational water management. The original background of the team is development and implementation  of decision support systems for water management all around the world. 



Countries and states need to know where and how their increasingly more precious water resources are being utilised. To get an overview of how the water is distributed, governments require water organisations to monitor their water use. Setting up such monitoring systems, using instruments at all turnouts, is an enormous investment for the water districts and moreover maintaining this equipment is unaffordable for most of them. 



The proposed system, using existing technology and mobile communication networks, is a very cost-effective and fail safe method to measure the flows and levels and usage, and thereby comply with most regulations.



The measurement of the water level in a river or canal, the ground water level, a gate position, discharge or a water quality variable, takes place by simply taking a picture with a smartphone. The picture is then automatically uploaded to a database and proprietary pattern recognition software reads the water variable from the picture. All the measurements and pictures are geo-tagged and are easily accessible through a geographic information system (GIS) based user interface. Export functionalities are available to export the data to most common water information systems. 



The Dutch company is seeking partners for a commercial agreement with technical assistance. Prefferably the potential partner has contacts/client-base with public and private water organisations. The Dutch company has extensive experience and expertise to help local partners with the implementation of the proposed system and with the development of specific markers, designed for local situations.

Advantages and Innovations

- Paperless administration

The proposed system reduces the entire process to the click of a button, and writing values down on paper and manually entering data is something of the past. 

- Real-time process 

Monitoring becomes a real-time process, where both operator and supervisor have immediate access to measurement and picture on the smart-phone and the central computer system.

- No Equipment

Anything installed along canals and rivers that moves or uses electronics can break down. Automation is an effective tool to increase water use efficiency, however requires extensive maintenance. The proposed system is a smart hybrid solution that combines the advantages of manual operations (robust) with the advantages of automation (efficiency) and existing mobile communication networks.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

The Dutch company is offering a commercial agreements with technical assistance to companies with expertise in water management. The partner will be responsible for sales and implementation of the technology.  The Dutch company has extensive experience and expertise to assist local partners with the implementation and the adaption to local situations.