To improve the efficiency of water use and reuse, water industry leaders have formed a Smart Water Networks Forum, as an industry alliance promoting the use of data technologies in water networks, to make them smarter, more efficient and more sustainable.

According to a press release, Smart Water Networks leverages data and information technology for better, up-to-date and more efficient operation of water utility distribution networks.

Smart Water Network solutions boost ability, durability and reliability of the underlying physical water network by better measuring, collecting, analyzing and acting upon a wide range of events. The founding members of the SWAN forum are Derceto, Echologics (a Division of Mueller Water), i2O Water, TaKaDu, Telvent and Schneider Electric (News - Alert).Guy Horowitz, chairman of the SWAN forum and vice president marketing at TaKaDu, commented that SWAN represents the entire eco-system that can and will make smart water networks a reality – technology and solution vendors, leading system integrators, industry experts, and leading water utilities and the forum’s goal is to guarantee that utilities and vendors could use data optimally for better managing their infrastructure.

Pascal Bonnefoi, water segment director at Schneider Electric, a global leader in the energy efficiency market said that a smarter water network can incorporate process and energy efficiency in water and wastewater operations.

Ignacio Gonzalez, Telvent's CEO stated that this forum provides the perfect framework to put this information into context and finding out true smart solutions for the utility's day-to-day decision making processes.

Stuart Hamilton, managing director of JD7, a company in inspection technologies for water networks said that using data for solving water network problems has the potential of facilitating the maintenance of utility assets and making the networks more efficient.