INDUSTRY 4.0: Innovative solutions for the water industry

Most water service providers are increasingly utilizing capacities of Internet of Things and Big Data for leakage detection, water metering, planning, monitoring and distribution. The era of Industry 4.0 has brought about different innovative solutions across various industrial sectors. Internet of Things (IoT) provides new solutions to the water industry, improving water management, and reducing operational expenses as relating to water infrastructure maintenance. A challenge in the water industry is the ability to turn the available data into insightful information, permitting effective decision making. This paper aims to answer two research questions that is "what are the innovative solutions that Big Data (BD) and Internet of Things offer the water industry" and "Is the Artificial Intelligence Hierarchy of Needs (AIHN) applicable to the water industry?". This paper reviews innovative solutions in the water industry from an Industry 4.0 perspective, with a close look at the BD and IoT. The paper identifies the key benefits of IoT-based technologies and how these technologies have started empowering the water industry, especially, in the development of smart water management system. This paper presents the AIHN and its application to the water industry, including data-science best practices. The paper further identifies the current challenges of BD and IoT and in conclusion, proposes a simple semantic innovative solution that illustrates how different sensors and BD, IoT and cloud technologies can assist the water industry to detect water leaks and pump issues at real-time via instant information to both in-house and field water engineers/personnel.