Vodafone Business gets central role in massive AI river monitoring network

Vodafone Business has landed a 10-year connectivity agreement to connect thousands of AI-enabled water quality sensors across UK rivers, 

Vodafone Business will provide infrastructure to enable river sensors that analyse water quality to transmit data every 15 minutes.

Undet the terms of the deal with UK-based environmental tech firm Additive Catchments Vodafone Business will keep AC’s sensors operational on a continuous basis, rather than relying on intermittent data collection. The project also involves partners, including Siemens, Google Cloud, AtkinsRéalis, Capgemini and The Rivers Trust.

The system is will provide greater visibility of pollution events, helping to distinguish between contamination caused by rainfall, sewage overflows or agricultural runoff. Traditional water monitoring methods rely on infrequent sampling and delayed laboratory results.

Regulatory changes require water companies in England to continuously monitor water quality around certain wastewater assets. This is expected to increase demand for resilient, always-on connectivity.

The new system will present the data in a more user-friendly format for swimmers, paddle boarders, anglers and other river users, end ensure regulators, water companies and infrastructure operators are working from the same data.

The full system will be deployed by deployment planned by 2030. The project is being led by environmental technology firm Additive Catchments, which is building the data platform and analytics layer.

Environmental monitoring is a massive growth area for IoT services, alongside utilities, transport and smart infrastructure.

Rob Passmore, CEO, Additive Catchments, said “This partnership shows what’s possible when telecoms, technology, and environmental intelligence come together to serve the public good.  With Vodafone Business support, we’re extending the reach and resilience of our Catchment Monitoring as a Service (CMaaS) platform, enabling proactive water quality management at a scale never before possible”.