Urban drainage should be one of the priorities of any city manager, as it is the main means of draining rainwater. This system should be maintained and closely monitored, as its absence or inefficiency can cause social problems such as floods, flash floods, transmission of pathologies, representative material losses and deaths. The management of this drainage in most Brazilian municipalities still does not receive due importance by municipalities, as there is no specific planning for the sector.

TOMUS has been developing solutions to help municipalities reduce the impacts of events related to rains and eventual floods, trying to counterbalance the lack of adequate historical investments and low awareness of the population (by dumping solid waste in inappropriate places). The use of technology to monitor pumping systems, stream levels, retention ponds, together with the usage of rain prediction techniques can enable proactive action by the municipal administration and greatly reduce the impact on the safety and quality of life of the population.

As a reference case, in the capital of the State of São Paulo, TOMUS already has more than one hundred monitoring points, along the main areas of relevance for urban drainage. The real-time remote monitoring of operational information from ponds, polders and tunnels generates strategic information for decision-making in critical periods of the year (mainly from October to March). Below are the main activities carried out for the City of São Paulo:

• Development of a control room, including the integration of various software, assembly and configuration of the videowall, operation through its own 24×7 team (working together with other companies and teams from different sectors of the municipality).
• Availability of its own Supervisory Software (“T.I. Industrial”) on the Web (Cloud) with 99.99% availability with alerts and automatic bulletins for different interest groups.
• Development of analytical reports.
• Design, assembly, supply, installation, commissioning and start-up of electrical panels containing dataloggers and communication equipment.
• Solar panel powered telemonitoring boards.
• Measuring instruments (sensors).
• Preventive and corrective maintenance with permanent warranty.

The main results achieved were:

For Municipal Management

• Better assessment of the population: competence and modern management;
• Reduction of financial and political impacts of problems generated by storm water;
• Generation of data, statistics and information for supporting better decision;
• Digital Transformation – Smart City;
• Better planning and optimization in the application of resources.

For the Operation & Maintenance Team

• Integration of information between diverse types of equipment;
• Better allocation of human and material resources;
• Speed ​​in maintenance calls;
• Reduction of machine downtime occurrences;
• Reduction of maintenance costs;
• More planning and prevention, less correction.

For the population

• Better functioning and traffic fluidity of the city;
• Less material and financial losses;
• Better sense of citizenship and safety;
• Reduction of problems related to public health;

The control monitoring numbers for the 2021/2022 rainy season were approximately:

• 490 pumping operation reports
• 80 critical reservoir level alerts
• 98 pump failure alerts
• 58 power failure alerts
• 60 post-rain information bulletins

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