SIU water data analytics for building sustainable water use culture (SIU Sustainability, Green Fund Project)

SIU consumes water daily for various purposes: drinking, maintaining laboratories, toilets, cooking, etc. Does SIU deliver and consume the water sustainably and smartly? Many water pipes installed a few decades ago are being deteriorated with ageing, leading to increased water leakage and energy wastage (e.g., water pumps). In this sense, the SIU’s Facilities and Energy Management (FEM) has installed water meters and monitored water usage and pressure (that relates to energy use) at building levels. Monitoring water usage and system operations can suggest an opportunity to improve synergistic water, energy, and economic efficiency. The water use data can have further potential to (1) encourage water conservation to the users by providing informational feedback and (2) enhance the SIU FEM’s monitoring capabilities to improve the water system’s performance, saving water. 

In this project, we advance the water use analytics that will encourage the collaborative efforts of SIU FEM and the users (SIU communities) to achieve SIU water use sustainability. Specifically, we build on experience to achieve two project objectives: 1) advance a prediction of water usage to provide informational feedback to FEM and users for demand-side water management and 2) advance anomaly detection to monitor and improve SIU water systems’ operations in real-time for supply-side water management. 

The expected research outputs include a data-driven prediction model for water and energy usage of SIU buildings and a data-driven detection model to identify anomalies in water supply services, which will be incorporated into the SIU FEM’s monitoring system. These outputs will help improve water and energy use efficiency through collaboration between SIU FEM (water system managers) and water users (SIU communities) and, in turn, contribute to the vision and missions for Saluki sustainability.