Monitoramento de consumo e perda de água de uma edificação com diferentes usos

Abstract

Cariri Cearense stands out among its neighboring regions for possessing the state’s main aquifer systems, which supply most municipalities with high-quality groundwater. However, population and industrial growth in the region has intensified the exploitation and pollution of these resources, requiring the implementation of management and protection measures to prevent a reduction in available water reserves. To ensure this, it is necessary to use appropriate tools for the effective management of water supply systems, given the variety of systems with distinct purposes and characteristics that comprise them. Technological advances in recent decades have made it feasible to use computers and other advanced devices, such as microcontrollers, sensors, and wireless communication networks, in the automation of water supply systems. Thus, the objective of this study was to present a continuous and remote monitoring system, with an interactive dashboard, to track changes in the water level over time in a reservoir serving a building at a higher education institution in the Cariri Cearense, and to calculate water consumption based on these changes. A water level monitoring system consisting of an ESP32 board and an AJ-SR04M ultrasonic level sensor was installed in the lower reservoir of Block I at the Universidade Federal do Cariri, where it operated continuously for three months. During this period, water consumption was recorded every weekday using the building’s water meter, to serve as a reference parameter for calibrating the code to be developed. A code was developed to process the data recorded by the sensor and calculate water consumption based on it. The results demonstrated the code’s increasing effectiveness in processing water level data, significantly reducing reading noise. However, the calculation of water consumption fell short of expectations, requiring longer time series to adjust the system’s sensitivity. The information collected during the study was used to develop a dashboard in Looker Studio, which displayed the variation in the water level of the lower reservoir over time and the water consumption obtained from the water meter readings. The dashboard proved to be an effective and accessible tool for monitoring water level variations in the reservoir and building water consumption. It was concluded that the system has great potential for monitoring the water level in the lower reservoir, and that the dashboard is an effective tool for remotely tracking the building’s water consumption and changes in the reservoir’s water level.