An Enriched Visualization Tool based on Google Maps for Water Distribution Networks in Smart Cities

Abstract

The innovation process for the management of a Water Distribution Network (WDN) in a Smart City starts from an efficient digital representation of the network itself. This paper presents a new visualization tool for WDN that overcomes current challenges and provides water companies with useful managing information. Existing visualization tools are self-contained systems that work independently from other visualization software and do not provide real-time analysis of the pipes and water flow status in the WDN. Using digital maps such as Google Maps it is possible to extend the traditional digital representation of the WDN based on EPANET software. Moreover, the WDN representation can be enriched with localized information (e.g. roads or buildings superimposed on the WDN), that is useful for planning maintenance and structural services. In presence of a WDN equipped with sensors and flowmeters, the proposed tool can be used for optimized visualization of the flow rate and the condition of the pipes in real-time. For these reasons, this tool can be a powerful instrument to help technicians quickly identify problems in the WDN. In this work, we used synthetic data generation techniques to obtain a data-set of values that updated over time. Finally, to evaluate the designed solution, we implemented the proposed visualization tool and performed some experiments to test its effectiveness.