IoT Analytics Safeguarding Water Resources in Southern Italy

The customer in this case study is the District Basin Authority of the Southern Apennine region in Italy. The Authority is responsible for governing the physical environment and protecting its water resources. It oversees the appropriate use of these resources, forecasts the region’s water supply, and prevents natural disasters and human-made hazards, such as illegal abstraction, discharges, and spills. The Authority is committed to continuously monitoring water quality and availability throughout the territory and has embarked on a project to build a network of remote sensors that can surveil the water system and analyze the data using a variety of technologies.

The Southern Apennine region in Italy, which is responsible for the country's central and southern water resources, is increasingly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Unpredictable and violent thunderstorms are affecting the hydrogeological structure of the soil, while prolonged droughts are escalating the risk of potential desertification. The intensive use of the land for agriculture and other purposes has also heightened exposure to natural disasters. The District Basin Authority, which governs the physical environment and protects its water resources, is tasked with monitoring the appropriate use of these resources, forecasting the region’s water supply, and preventing natural and human-made hazards. The Authority initiated a project to continuously monitor water quality and availability throughout the territory, aiming to build a network of remote sensors that could surveil the water system and analyze the data using various technologies, including big data analytics and data science modeling.

In collaboration with Hitachi Vantara, the Authority is developing a system to sample data from the field using specific multiparametric sensors, including video, thermographic, lidar, and others. This data, integrated with a GIS system and meteorological forecasts, flows into a big data analytics and data science system that allows officials to inspect water resources throughout the territory and generate actionable insights in real time to mitigate risks and protect the environment. The solution uses Hitachi Lumada Industrial Data Ops to capture data on local water resources at remote sites throughout the region. This data is then blended with enterprise data, GIS and external data such as weather forecasts. Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere syncs the captured video to a central file server, and Hitachi Content Intelligence enriches it with metadata before storing it appropriately in the Authority’s Hitachi Content Platform object storage system. By matching the sensor alerts to the video data and feeding the results into the Authority’s research applications, real-time data modeling, analysis, and monitoring via dashboards and control rooms are made possible.

• The IoT solution has enhanced the Authority’s advanced scientific knowledge in forecasting and modeling natural events and resource impairment. It has enabled the development of strategies for assessing and managing the risk exposure of the region’s physical-environmental and socio-economic systems. The solution also allows for experiments with multi-scalar criteria and methods of analysis to estimate and manage risks relating to human hazards such as illegal activity—with positive outcomes for the economy and society. As a result of this pioneering work, the Authority is better able to protect the springs and watercourses. Using the new dashboard system, officials can react to alarms in an intelligent and coordinated manner and collaborate directly with emergency services, including law enforcement.