Sustainable Validation of Water Consumption using Drones in Bahrain

<p dir="ltr"><i>Water in the Kingdom of Bahrain is a constrained resource, with a majority supplied though energy-intensive desalination. The Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) in Bahrain manages the conservation and supply, using radio-capable supply meters to monitor and bill consumption in real-time. However, radio shadows in the local geography (especially in dense urban areas) means that some meters only return partial data, and meters return no data at all.</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>Currently the EWA manages the data holes though the carbon intensive, manual reading of meters, requiring employees to drive to individual meters to return data. Nonetheless, whilst a regular schedule ensures reasonable accuracy for billing purposes, the capability of the sensor network is not being fully exploited. Comprehensive, accurate, monitoring would better enable real-time management of supply and demand, conserving energy and water resources within the Kingdom.</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>This project demonstrates a prototype drone system, using off-the-shelf technology to cheaply monitor water supply meters in a large geographic area, at with lower carbon life-cycle costs. By reusing the existing capability developed by the Electricity and Water Authority, the project enables the rapid roll-out of a secondary data return system. Both allowing EWA to read ‘unserviceable’ meters automatically, and validating supply data through existing channels.</i></p><p dir="ltr"><i>The use of standardised radio technology is increasingly common for resource management, and radio shadows are an inherent limitation. Concluding, commercial drones provides a alternative to manual meter reading for EWA, and show a reduction in overall carbon costs. The modular nature of the platform developed also offers a starting point for other projects using common radio technologies for sensor networks.</i></p>