One of the reasons why I’m so interested in IoT is for optimizing resource usage. In order to optimize something you need two things, first information as to how its being used and second to be able to control how its being used, sounds like IoT doesn’t it.
The state of California has just announced mandatory water restrictions of 25%, now what really makes this interesting is California is no stranger to water storages and so a lot of the ‘easy button’ solutions have already been implemented and as California has learned, you just can’t make more water, so its time for the big ticket solutions, enter IoT. Sure IoT is an expense but there just isn’t any other cheaper options left. We need to know how water is being used, who is wasting water (we are past being nice here, time to punish the stupid as well as the illegal use of water), so yep data collection is going to happen. We need to be able to control how water is being used so, yes someone can turn the water off remotely, or redirect it elsewhere.
In the city that I live in we don’t really have a water shortage, but water usage is a concern here and so in 2011 Calgary ranked #1 in North America for lowest water use per capita at 113 gallons per person per day, LA was at 187 gallons per day. Now granted we have winter where our water usage switches from watering lawns to making hockey rinks, but water meters are the norm here so we have a bit of an idea how the water is being used and folks pay for the water they use (we charge double as the assumption is you use water and then that water is sewage and hence uses that infrastructure so you pay twice).
http://www.siemens.com/press/pool/de/events/2011/corporate/2011-06-northamerican/northamerican-gci-report-e.pdf
Now IoT is the answer for a ton of resource usage problems as frankly we have pretty much maxed out on production of everything, so now its optimizing usage that’s the goal for citizens, business and governments. Good time to be an IoT dude.
They do that already. And they do fine people who spend more water than allowed. Especially people who want their grass look green. They also realized that they make a lot of money collecting these fines.
They didn’t need IoT to bill me for my water usage last month. They even knew how much I used. Nowdays, they read the meter wirelessly (is that IoT?).
Around here most cities use an “incresing block rate” for our water, which means, what you pay per gallon depends on how many gallons you use in a month. Use more, and it gets more expensive per gallon.
The best way, IMO, to solve water problems is to ensure that the price of water reflects the true cost.
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But how would you calculate that?
If someone uses the final gallon of water, and it ends up costing the state billions in infrastructure changes (pipeline from oregon? Desalination plants?) what is the true cost of that gallon of water? Most of the costs of using up water excessively now will be in the future (and will be enormous)
It’s definitely a hard problem. We should start by not sending all our water to Las Vegas 
I predict a mass migration to New Zealand. It rains every week here (and they still complain about a “drought” because it was drier in the summer)
Get your spot in the shire now before it is too late!
[quote=“godefroi”]
They didn’t need IoT to bill me for my water usage last month. They even knew how much I used. Nowdays, they read the meter wirelessly (is that IoT?).[/quote]
Perhaps there is an IoT solution available. Install grey water collectors and give each house a clean water quota. Once they exceed it then they start getting pumped the grey water instead of the clean water. It wouldn’t be long before they stopped wasting the clean water on their lawns 
Ewww. Not completely grey at first. Perhapse just 1 of maybe 50 shades or so. Each one getting worse with continued disobedience.
