TORONTO – Rogers and Ericsson are partnering on a “Connected Water” initiative that will use Internet of Things technology to support the City of Ottawa’s water quality testing program.
The first of its kind in Canada, the pilot will use a combination of IoT, cloud and LTE mobile broadband technologies to gather real-time data that City staff can use to better predict, prevent and respond to potential issues related to water quality.
Sensors, capable of collecting data over a widespread area of the City's watershed system, will perform automated tests every 30 minutes. City employees will use this data to validate the data generated against existing water testing protocols that are currently in use and provide feedback to Ericsson and Rogers regarding the performance of the Connected Water solution.
The City of Ottawa's current water monitoring program includes approximately 80,000 annual water quality tests for a network of rivers and streams roughly spanning 4,500 kilometres. In addition to the City, the Rideau Valley, South Nation and Mississippi Valley Conservation Authorities are also participating in the pilot test.
"Hundreds of cities across Canada today rely on manual processes to maintain and deliver utilities. Internet of Things solutions can help municipalities like the City of Ottawa save time and resources while improving the accuracy of their processes," said Charlie Wade, SVP products and solutions at Rogers’ Enterprise Business Unit, in the news release. "Our work with Ericsson and the City is part of our larger focus to help cities and communities across Canada implement products and solutions that will better connect their resources, infrastructure and people."
"Programs similar to this pilot have proven to be extremely effective in remotely monitoring water quality, but they have typically been too expensive to be deployed extensively for a big city like Ottawa," added Ericsson Canada president Graham Osborne. "We believe this Connected Water solution is a big step forward in providing government bodies with a cost-effective and efficient technology to monitor a natural resource as crucial as our local rivers and streams."
