As urbanization and digitalization accelerate, water supply systems—crucial components of city infrastructure—play a vital role in supporting residential life and industrial production. However, traditional water supply networks face numerous challenges in operations and maintenance (O&M), including aging pipelines, high leakage rates, difficulty in equipment location, and low repair efficiency. In response to these issues, smart water management has emerged as a critical direction for the transformation and upgrade of the water utilities sector. Among the enabling technologies, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) stands out with its contactless identification, high-precision location capabilities, and real-time data management, making it a key player in enhancing the O&M efficiency of water supply networks. This article explores how RFID contributes to improving water network operations and analyzes its practical applications and value.

1. Challenges in Water Supply Network Operations

a. Lack of Transparency and Incomplete Asset Records

Traditional water utilities often rely on paper documents or scattered spreadsheets to manage infrastructure assets such as valves, water meters, joints, and manhole covers. These fragmented systems make it difficult to obtain real-time status updates, leading to inefficiencies in dispatch and maintenance.

b. High Leakage Rates and Slow Response to Failures

Aging pipelines, construction damage, and unauthorized water use contribute to high average leakage rates. Manual inspections are costly and slow, making it difficult to detect and resolve issues early.

c. Difficult Equipment Location and Complex Pipeline Layouts

In older urban areas, incomplete blueprints and overlapping underground pipelines complicate maintenance efforts. This often leads to accidental excavations and misaligned repairs.

2. Overview and Advantages of RFID Technology

RFID is a contactless data identification and transmission technology that uses radio waves. An RFID system consists of three main components: RFID tags, readers, and a backend management system.

In the water utilities sector, RFID tags can be attached or embedded into infrastructure components, each with a unique ID. These tags offer several advantages:

• Efficient Identification: Data can be read without physical contact or disassembly, streamlining asset inspections.

• Strong Durability: Specialized RFID tags are resistant to moisture, high temperatures, and corrosion—ideal for harsh water environments.

• Intelligent Logging: Maintenance schedules, responsible personnel, and performance data can be stored, forming a digital asset ledger.

• Accurate Positioning: When integrated with GIS (Geographic Information Systems), RFID enables precise location tracking of underground assets.

3. RFID Applications in Water Network Operations

a. Digital Asset Management

Valves, water meters, manhole covers, and pipe joints can be tagged with RFID, enabling full lifecycle information tracking. Maintenance personnel can scan the tags using handheld devices to access asset IDs, installation dates, maintenance history, and performance status.

For instance, in a smart water management project in a Chinese city, all critical valves were coded and fitted with RFID tags. During inspections, workers could instantly verify maintenance schedules and detect anomalies, significantly improving the accuracy and efficiency of asset management.

b. Leakage Detection and Repair Coordination

When a leak is detected, the dispatch center can use the RFID tag to quickly locate the faulty component and retrieve its maintenance history. Coupled with GIS data, the system displays the component’s exact geographic location and surrounding infrastructure, enabling targeted repairs.

Some advanced RFID tags also come equipped with sensors for monitoring parameters like pressure and temperature. These smart tags can send real-time data to the control center, where algorithms analyze the data for early signs of leakage, shifting the maintenance model from reactive to preventive.

c. Construction Safety and Intelligent Inspection

During pipeline construction or upgrades, complex underground layouts often lead to accidental damage. RFID-tagged markers buried along pipelines help construction crews identify the correct routes and avoid unnecessary risks.

Additionally, RFID can be integrated with inspection systems to create automated reminders for scheduled maintenance or anomaly reporting. Inspection staff scan RFID tags to check in and upload task results, creating a traceable, auditable maintenance record that minimizes “ghost inspections.”

4. Case Study and Results

In the Jiangbei New Area of Nanjing, RFID and IoT platforms were introduced to build a unified digital asset management system for the water network. After one year of implementation, the following results were achieved:

• Pipeline location time was reduced by 90%, greatly improving emergency repair efficiency;

• Valve inspection compliance rate rose to 98%, with complete digital records;

• Annual leakage rate dropped from 15% to 8%, showing significant water-saving benefits;

• A comprehensive digital asset database was created, making infrastructure “visible, traceable, and manageable.”

This model is now being expanded to other districts, serving as a benchmark for the digital transformation of municipal water utilities.

5. Challenges and Future Directions

Despite its advantages, RFID adoption in the water industry faces some obstacles:

• High Initial Costs: High-performance RFID tags (e.g., pressure-resistant, sensor-enabled) are relatively expensive, requiring significant upfront investment.

• Environmental Limitations: Deeply buried components or metal interference can reduce RFID readability.

• Data Integration Complexity: Successful implementation requires integration with GIS, SCADA, customer service systems, etc., which can be technically challenging.

• Training Requirements: Field workers need training to adapt to new tools and workflows.

Looking forward, RFID technology will likely integrate with NB-IoT, 5G, AI visual analytics, and blockchain to enable broader sensing, automated decision-making, and secure data management. As tag costs decline and customization capabilities increase, RFID is expected to expand into small and mid-sized cities and rural water systems, accelerating the spread of smart water solutions.

Conclusion

RFID is dismantling the information silos that hinder traditional water management by enabling fast, accurate, and intelligent operations. In the broader context of smart city development, RFID supports a full-cycle water management framework—from sensing and transmission to analysis, decision-making, and execution. This not only improves O&M efficiency and customer service quality but also ensures the sustainable use of water resources. As RFID continues to mature and receive policy support, it will become a critical pillar of smart water infrastructure, guiding urban water supply systems into a new era of intelligent and refined management.