Open Datasets and IoT Sensors for Residential Water Demand Monitoring at the End-Use Level: A Pilot Study Site in Naples (Italy)

Water infrastructure systems management is one of the most urgent global issues, as urbanization and population continue to rise. Monitoring and analysis of water demand is one of many challenges faced by researchers in the past decades. The spread of smart technology improves the way in which data can be collected. Water utilities are starting to try out innovative smart meters instead of traditional water meters to read water consumption with a high-resolution rate. This new trend made available a great amount of data opened new opportunities to improve water services and fostered the interest in understanding the use of water in domestic environments along with direct implications on identifying demand patterns, forecasting future demands, detecting leakage, improving users’ awareness, and customizing users’ profiles. This chapter presents a pilot study site of water end-use demand monitoring in a residential apartment located in Naples (Italy). A monitoring system based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology was implemented and installed on the fixtures of a single-family apartment. Data gathered have been used to realize an open dataset available in the research community to train data-driven algorithms. Overall, the chapter provides insights for new perspectives and further research related to the importance of high-resolution data to improve water demand-side management. This case study represents a first step towards a decentralized monitoring water system aimed to increase user awareness to promote water conservation.