Council in running for 2019 smart city award
Date published: 30 May 2019
Townsville City Council’s use of smart monitoring technology to collect high-quality near real time data for improved water, infrastructure and environmental outcomes is in the running for a national Smart City award.
The Council has been shortlisted for the Smart City of the Year – Metropolitan award which will be announced at the Smart Cities 2019 Conference in Melbourne this week.
Water and Waste Committee Chair Cr Russ Cook said the council had used smart technology since 2012 to monitor and collect data in a range of areas including water usage, water quality, electricity consumption and rainfall and riverflows.
“The shortlisting for a national award is an acknowledgement of the great work council staff have been doing in embracing new technology to improve services and better protect our local environment,” Cr Cook said.
“Council first used this technology in 2013 on the Smart Water Pilot where we had smart meters in a number of participating households to collect detailed data on water usage that could be used in future community campaigns.
“Since then the council has used the same technology in meters and sensors in a number of applications across the city to provide valuable real time data the council needs to better identify and solve problems for the benefit of our community.”
Initiatives utilising this technology include:
- Smart Water Pilot - Smart water meters used in a trial to provide data to households on their water usage with real time monitoring of water use behaviour.
- Smart meters used for higher water consumers in the city including some schools, sports fields, commercial operations to allow them to monitor usage and identify leaks.
- Temperature sensors in roofs to measure the influence of roof colour on internal temperature.
- Monitoring electricity and security lights at remote council depots.
- Work with JCU on trialling and development of Sensor Q for monitoring and collection of data on water quality.
- Use of pressure sensors, sewer height level sensors and flow sensors to help inform management of the city’ water and wastewater infrastructure.
The Smart City Awards – Metropolitan is award showcasing the best use of technologies.
