Article by João Caetano – Hydraulics Technician of Infralobo and Soraia Almeida – Hydraulics Technician of Inframoura.
Water is an essential factor for the socio-economic development of the countries and, consequently, a strategic and structuring resource, becoming essential to promote and guarantee a high efficiency in its use.
The occurrence of water losses is inherent to all water supply systems, and it is vital to ensure its proper management. For that reason, it is important to build calculation processes that are reliable, organized and auditable, of all the necessary information for the efficient management of the management entity in terms of water and energy. The adoption of consolidated approaches and the implementation of robust analysis tools is imperative for each management entities increasingly converge towards one of the main goals, on a planetary scale, combating climate change.
Since the management entities of the Algarve, Portugal, are aware of this thematic, due to the consecutive years of drought that hit the region, the desire to improve efficiency in the management of water and energy resources and find innovative solutions are imperative.
The Giswater software supported Inframoura, E.M in the process of implementing Monitoring and Control Zones, with the goal of reducing and controlling water losses in its system, providing a greater knowledge of the behavior of the network, being this a key part for the design and implementation of this operation. Therefore, it was essential to develop a hydraulic model, where Giswater, is an integral part.
Infralobo, E.M., used the Giswater tool, in order to optimize the functional performance of its water supply system, in view of the considerable requests for watering public green spaces. The utilization made it possible, through the creation of a hydraulic model, to analyze the impact of spatial and temporal distribution of public irrigation consumption, in the pressure on each consumption point. This Study resulted in a communication presented in the National Meeting of Water and Sanitation Management Entities, last November, in Ílhavo, Portugal, entitled “Contributo de um sistema de rega inteligente para a sustentabilidade” (Contribution of a smart irrigation system for sustainability).
The structuring of all the cadastral information and its integration with the various information systems existing in companies (CRM and SCADA), provided by Giswater, is essential for the development of these works.
The Giswater project aims to make a small but important contribution to water and energy efficiency, which all management entities aim for their systems. The fact that it is a collaborative tool, provides the sharing knowledge and experiences, promoting collective thinking around a common purpose, the increasingly efficient management of natural resources.