Providing and exchanging information with retail municipalities

Case

through Aquanet Osaka during emergency and non-emergency

Water utility

Osaka Water Supply Authority

General information of the utility (as of 2022)*All the information except “operation type” is about wholesale water supply
Public (wholesale &Operation typeindustrial & retailwater supply)

Population
servedService
coverage (%)
NRW (%)
Number ofwater sources
Water rates
(JPY)

―――

Service area
(km2)
Distribution(m3/d)
Pipe length(km)Number of staff

1679.99

1,376,762
607.81351

Surface water (1), Groundwater (0), Others (0)(in case of 10m3 of water per month for―residential customers with 13mmdiameter)

In the Osaka Prefecture area, there are no water sources other thanthe Yodogawa River that are abundant in quantity, making it difficult
for most cities, towns, and villages in the prefecture to secure thenecessary amount of water for their communities from nearby rivers
and groundwater alone. For this reason, the Osaka Water Supply
Authority ("the Authority") takes water from the Yodogawa River andsupplies it to 42 municipalities, excluding Osaka City.
In the past, the Authority introduced a "water supply management
system" to ensure a stable water supply by remotely operating

Summary

unmanned pumping stations, clean water reservoirs, and otherfacilities from its Water Supply Management Center that could monitor
all of them. However, the information on the Authority’s facilities alone
had been too limited to respond to water incidents effectively.
Therefore, for more stable water supply, it became necessary tounderstand the status of water facilities operated by the retailmunicipalities purchasing drinking water from the Authority.
To enhance the lifeline safety, the Osaka Prefecture waterworks
development plan (formulated in March 1980) called for further
expansion of the existing water supply management system to enable
information exchange with the retail municipalities, as well as thefacility development to make communications with the municipal
water supply facilities. Based on this plan, in 1990, the Authority andthe retail municipalities began considering the establishment of a
support system to ensure more stable water supply.
Based on the results of these discussions, the support system waslaunched in April 1995 as the Prefectural and Municipal Waterworks
Information Exchange System("Aquanet Osaka").
Since then, the Aquanet Osaka
has been effectively used as atool for exchanging information
regarding water supply between
the retail municipalities and theFigure 1 Top page of Aquanet Osaka

InternetAuthority.

terminal

terminal

terminal

terminal
Wide-area Ethernet
leased line

Micro wireless line

terminal

terminal

Each municipality

The Authority’s offices,WTPs, etc.

Figure 2 System configuration of Aquanet Osaka
The system configuration of Aquanet Osaka is shown in Figure 2,
with servers installed at the Water Supply Management Center andrelated terminals installed at each site using the system. Using thenetwork, the user can communicate with the Authority (13 sites) andretail municipalities (42 sites) via optical fiber lines (leased lines) andwireless lines. Information on municipal water supply is stored in the2/5

Water Supply Management Center via the network from the sequencer
attached to the terminals.
Aquanet Osaka has the following functions.
① Work support
・Display of real-time information on water supplied by the Authority
and received by retail municipalities
Information on the amount of water delivered, the amount of water
stored in regulating reservoirs, water quality, etc. at the Authority's
water facilities, as well as the amount of water received by the retailmunicipalities and the amount of water stored in distribution
reservoirs, can be displayed on the system chart in real time.
・Utilization of stored data
The water supply information of the Authority and the retailmunicipalities

storedinthecomputes

attheWater

SupplyManagement Center can be utilized through the terminals for
outputting reports, displaying trend graphs, searching actual data, andoutputting CSV files.

1．Trend graph

2．Monitoring screen for network

3．Monitoring screen for water quality4．Ledger

Figure 3 Work Support System of Aquanet Osaka
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②Crisis Management Functions

Aquanet Osaka is equipped with an "emergency message function"that allows information to be sent simultaneously to any terminal in
the event of an emergency such as power outage, water leakage, or
water quality incident, and a "bulletin board function" for information
sharing between the Authority and retail municipalities.
The

emergency

messagefunction,

inparticular,

allowsfor

simultaneous notification of incidents and facility restoration status,
thereby avoiding confusion due to lack of information, and enablesquicker and more accurate communication during the initial responseto an incident than telephone or other communication methods.
In addition, the emergency message can be used for both"emergency" and "normal" times. During normal times/operations,"normal" messages can be used for maintenance of water quality
monitors to efficiently provide information to concerned parties.
③ Network lines
When the Aquanet Osaka was first introduced, information wastransmitted to and from the retail municipalities via ISDN (telephone)lines.
In April 2002, a distributed processing method (client/server) usingInternet was adopted, and the system configuration was changed toactively take advantage of the Internet.
In April 2010, the Aquanet Osaka was upgraded to include the highlevel computer equipment, and information transmission with theretail municipalities is now carried out using optical leased line (widearea Ethernet) for enhanced security and stability.
The Authority's bases are connected by a self-operated micro
wireless line, which enables stable communication even in times ofdisaster.
④ Use of the Aquanet Osaka from any terminals
Aquanet Osaka used to be available at limited terminals, but inApril 2010, the system was made available from any terminals having
installed its application and connected to the Internet. Now, eachterminal can use functions other than sending emergency messages
and posting on the bulletin board, helping to share information in theevent of an emergency.
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○Regarding the viewing of Aquanet Osaka
Current Status &Challenges

As mentioned above, Aquanet Osaka information can be viewed
from any terminals. However, since the system is currently limited
to Windows applications, the environment in which the system canbe used for viewing information and other purposes is limited.
○Regarding the viewing of Aquanet Osaka
If information on Aquanet Osaka could be viewed from mobile
terminals such as smart phones, it would be possible to confirm
information on water supply in the event of an incident such as aleak, enabling appropriate action to be taken (e.g. switching theMeasures &Solutions

system or cleaning water mains) leading to rapid recovery. In
addition, the ability to view emergency messages and bulletinboard information is considered effective for sharing information in
the event of an incident. In light of the above, it is considered thatthe introduction of a function that allows users to view information
on Aquanet Osaka from mobile devices would expand the range of
its uses and contribute to more efficient operations both inemergencies and in normal times.
The Authority is considering updating the current system of theAquanet Osaka as it has become outdated.

Future Plans

In updating the system, while maintaining the necessaryfunctions, the Authority expects to make it more useful by, forexample, adding a function to check information from mobiledevices.

References

Osaka Water Supply Authority
https://www.wsa-osaka.jp/

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