https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • Magazine
    • Back
    • Digital Editions
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • Subscribe to GovPro
    • Manage GovPro Subscription
    • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
acc.com

Smart Cities & Technology


Article

High Tech Water Control

High Tech Water Control

Cloud-based water dashboard helps the city and its residents manage costs.
  • Written by Derek Prall
  • 18th February 2015

Although they may not know they are using the cloud, Dubuque, Iowa’s residents are using it to make more informed decisions about how they use water and track the associated costs.

The city of 58,253 created a private-cloud-based water portal named DBQ IQ  which is available to city residents and many small businesses.

It provides a customer-specific, integrated view of water usage with data displayed in gallons, cost or by carbon footprint. The information also includes leak detection and notification, historical usage data and comparative data.

With this information, Dubuque Water Department customers can identify waste and perform corrective measures that can translate into smarter water use and increased energy savings. More efficient water use will also reduce the city’s energy and chemicals costs of treating and delivering water.

“Each day we upload hourly readings for 22,000 water meters to the cloud. Those hourly readings are produced every day, 365/24/7. That’s an enormous amount of data that we are moving off to the cloud,” says Chris Kohlmann, Dubuque’s Information Services Manager.

Kohlmann says that the cloud application helps speed up notifications about leaks, reducing the former 90- to 120-day notification period down to 2 or 3 days. Customers get word about consumption anomalies either via text message or e-mail.

Moving other services

Dubuque is moving other functions to the cloud, including archiving city e-mail and managing mobile devices “Where it is applicable, we are slowly moving applications off city servers and into the cloud,” Kohlmann says. She says that reduced storage needs and fewer servers are potential benefits to the city.

“E-mail archival is huge, since we are looking for e-mail retention cycles that are 5 to 10 years, depending on the app.”

The cloud setup for Dubuque’s IT department frees up some resources, Kohlmann says, but city officials still do a lot of monitoring. “You don’t totally give up management of the application, once it moves to the cloud. You may give up the management of the hardware side of it, but you still have a responsibility to maintain that application and make sure that everything’s working correctly, and that all of the required tasks are still being performed.”

Kohlmann says cities may be able to achieve savings on hardware, since the cloud setup entails using a scalable, shared resource. “I think that’s one of the great advantages of the cloud, but I think we still have that responsibility to care and feed the application, and make sure that your cloud provider is doing the same things that the IT department would, in terms of security, backups, redundancy and availability.”

Kohlmann is exploring future cloud apps for Dubuque’s IT functions. “We are looking closely at moving some of our billing and utility activities out to the cloud, possibly. We are also looking at some data center applications that might have some hosted management offerings that are in the cloud. I think it’s one of those alternatives that we are evaluating each time that we look at replacing hardware or expanding or updating our storage capacity.”

Others headed to cloud

Administrators in other cities are eager to learn about the role of the cloud in city service delivery, based on results of a recent cloud trends reader survey from American City & County. About 36 percent of reader-respondents indicated that they want to understand how the cloud can improve delivery of citizen services.

A recent ICMA electronic government survey also shows that almost a quarter (23 percent) of local government respondents are using cloud computing for e-mail functions. Almost two-thirds of state CIOs said they planned to migrate e-mail and collaboration services to the cloud in 2014, according to the “2014 CIO Survey” from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). 

Michael Keating ([email protected] ) is senior editor of Government Product News.

_____________

To get connected and stay up-to-date with similar content from American City & County:
Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter
Watch us on Youtube

Tags: Smart Cities & Technology Article

Related


  • Clearing a path to multicloud as the new foundation for digital government
    To say that the last year has been challenging for state and local governments is a massive understatement. While citizens turned to their state and local agencies for guidance during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local leaders were largely left to navigate the uncertainty without a roadmap or assistance from the Federal […]
  • Bridging the digital divide: Three questions community leaders should consider
    As nearly every aspect of our society becomes more reliant on technology, the need for ubiquitous, data-rich connectivity is imperative, even as the definition of broadband continues to evolve. The opportunity gap between those who have affordable access to advanced digital infrastructure and those who do not continues to grow, leaving many behind. Community leaders […]
  • A video surveillance camera and sign warning about CCTV being in operation
    All activities monitored: The 10 most surveilled major cities in the U.S.
    Public close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, or public video surveillance camera, hold multiple benefits for cities. They can help reduce crimes around public areas, buildings and roads, and with the increasing deployment of smart sensors and 5G, these cameras will be able to utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) to accomplish much more in the future. […]
  • A street in Denver
    Denver anticipates autonomous vehicles with cross-agency, cross-sector collaborative planning
    Without early planning by regulators, autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to fail on their promises of safer and more convenient travel. Before and even during the pandemic, which has understandably shifted priorities of local and state officials, leaders in AV policy development are nonetheless thinking about and producing plans to deal with hundreds of […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • The future of work is hybrid: why city and county workers need secure remote access
  • Policy experts debate the role of wireless in universal broadband
  • Report: Ransomware attacks cost local and state governments over $18 billion in 2020
  • Tennessee county allows autonomous shuttle to operate on public road

White papers


Records Management Rapid Response Checklist

16th April 2021

Overcoming 5 Common Challenges Facing Facility Managers

16th April 2021

How-to Tips to Prepare for Your Summer Construction Projects

5th April 2021
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

EPIC announces incentive program to help small municipalities replace lead pipes dlvr.it/RxqtsL

16th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Clearing a path to multicloud as the new foundation for digital government dlvr.it/Rxqcgp

16th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Records Management Rapid Response Checklist dlvr.it/RxqR8L

16th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Overcoming 5 Common Challenges Facing Facility Managers dlvr.it/RxphXL

16th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Bridging the digital divide: Three questions community leaders should consider dlvr.it/Rxlth0

15th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Procurement department puts post-pandemic work plan in place to ensure continued productivity dlvr.it/RxgxjN

14th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

Georgia city moves to automated trash collection dlvr.it/RxX5Rl

12th April 2021
AmerCityCounty

The Community Game Changer: Library Outsourcing dlvr.it/RxLd6r

9th April 2021

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X