The Challenge

The city's aging water infrastructure was prone to frequent, undetectable micro-leaks that often escalated into major pipe bursts. This resulted in significant water loss, expensive emergency repairs, and disruption to citizens. The municipality needed a proactive, city-wide monitoring system capable of detecting acoustic anomalies in real-time across hundreds of miles of underground pipelines.

Our Solution

Chirp Tech designed a comprehensive IoT architecture utilizing custom acoustic sensors deployed directly onto the pipeline valves. These battery-operated edge devices use AI to filter out background city noise and isolate the specific frequencies of water escaping under pressure, transmitting alerts via a low-power LoRaWAN network.

• Edge AI Sensors:Custom-designed acoustic hardware that processes sound waves locally, ensuring only relevant anomaly data is transmitted to save battery life.
• City-Wide LoRaWAN:Deployed a secure, long-range wireless network capable of penetrating concrete and soil to retrieve data from subterranean sensors.
• Command Center Dashboard:A real-time GIS mapping interface that pinpoints leak probabilities, allowing dispatchers to route maintenance crews precisely.

The Results

Within the first six months of deployment, the system identified over 40 critical vulnerabilities that were repaired proactively. The municipality realized an immediate ROI through reduced water loss and the elimination of several high-cost emergency excavation projects.