{"id":2339,"date":"2023-04-12T09:50:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T07:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geocom.one\/?p=2339"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:00:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:00:32","slug":"smart-meters-and-lorawan-technology-to-tackle-the-water-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geocom.one\/en\/smart-meters-and-lorawan-technology-to-tackle-the-water-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"SMART Meters and LoRaWAN technology to tackle the water crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”6″ top_padding=”5″ bottom_padding=”0″ back_image=”131″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ content_parallax=”0″ uncode_shortcode_id=”560726″][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” text_color=”color-rgdb” uncode_shortcode_id=”579721″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_class=”giustificato”]When we talk about ‘water crisis’ we refer to a topic with worldwide relevance. In a small country like Italy, water is a fundamental resource for the operation of 1.5 million agricultural companies<\/strong>, about 330,000 water-intensive manufacturing companies<\/strong> and over 9,000 energy sector companies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian water infrastructure is insufficient and inefficient, considering that 60% of the network is over 30 years old, 25% over half a century. The percentage of water losses<\/strong> in the distribution phase reaches 41.2%<\/strong> placing our country in the fourth-to-last position among the 27 EU+UK countries while that relating to linear losses – equal to 9,072 m3\/km\/year<\/strong> – positions us last in Europe.<\/p>\n

All this is accompanied by the low digitalization of water flow measurement systems, since 50% of meters in Italian homes are over 20 years old. Smart meters or intelligent meters<\/strong> which, beyond the convenience of use for monitoring and billing, would allow saving, just in the residential sector, about 2.4 billion euros equivalent to 513.3 million m3<\/strong> (about 10% of annual civil water consumption), represent only 4% of total meters, 12 times less than the European average where almost one in two (49%) is already “smart”.<\/p>\n

The urgency to find a solution to the water emergency is evident from the worsening caused by drought<\/strong>. In Italy it no longer rains enough to fill the basins and infrastructure capable of countering the consequences of the climate crisis is lacking. It no longer rains in the North, the hydrological balance is now compromised and rebalancing cannot do without important external interventions. Want to take a look at some numerical data? The great Northern lakes are all below average and their filling percentage is, today, lower than that of January 2022 \u2013 Lake Maggiore 18%; Lake Iseo 20.7%; Lake Como 23.5%; Lake Garda 36.4% \u2013 followed by an extraordinary drought season and one of the hottest summers: +1.37\u00b0C in the North and +1.13\u00b0C in the South.<\/p>\n

To counter drought, a water prevention policy must be pursued that counters waste, dispersion and optimizes consumption, as demonstrated by some advanced experiences in our country that have long been implementing virtuous systems for water collection and recovery. They represent examples of high technical-scientific profile to be replicated, where possible, throughout the national territory. (source Greenplanner)<\/em><\/p>\n

There are no simple solutions to solve the water crisis since action must be taken at the origin of the climate crisis: it is a complex emergency situation, since the causes are multiple and interconnected. However, it is possible to implement some interventions to at least mitigate the problem, such as:<\/p>\n