WADI’s overall objective is to contribute to the reduction of losses in water transmission systems for water supply, irrigation, and hydropower, and simultaneously, to decrease the related energy consumption.
The project will develop an airborne water leak detection surveillance service to provide water utilities with adequate information on leaks in water infrastructure outside urban areas, thus enabling prompt and cost-effective repairs.
WADI’s innovative concept consists in coupling and optimising off-the-shelf optical remote sensing devices (multispectral and infrared cameras) and applying them on two complementary aerial platforms (manned and unmanned) in an operational environment. The feasibility of the surveillance service developed by WADI will be tested in real representative conditions through water leak detection campaigns on two pilot sites: Provence region (France) and Alqueva (Portugal).
WHY WADI?
EFFICIENCY
If 20% of the European water network applied WADI’s solution, it can be roughly estimated that each year:
- The amount of water saved could reach a total amount of 1.27 billion m3
- Energy consumption would be reduced by 815 million kWh
- 464.55 million kg of CO2 emissions would be avoided
Based on such assumptions, end users could spare 242 million € on an annual basis.
EFFECTIVENESS
The service provided by WADI will enable long distance and strategic infrastructure monitoring also in areas with difficult physical access.
ADAPTABILITY
Thanks to its customised and optimised data processing technique, WADI will provide an accurate and tailored (and therefore efficient and reliable) leak detection method for water supply mains.
ENVIRONMENT
The WADI service will have a positive impact on the environment: it will help to reduce water losses from water supply systems in the pilot sites, contributing to tackling water scarcity and drought.
MARKET
The reliability and scalability of WADI technology will be proved on real environment demonstrations.