SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)

SCADA — supervisory control and data acquisition — is the software layer that lets a handful of operators watch a whole utility network from one room. Sensors at reservoirs, pumping stations, substations and measurement points report continuously; the SCADA system draws them as a live schematic, raises alarms when a value drifts, and lets an operator open a valve or switch a pump without driving to it.

It is the workhorse behind most water and grid entries in this atlas. Istanbul's ISKI runs its network as metered zones under SCADA and reports non-revenue water down from 22.3% in 2019 to 18.6% by 2024. Algiers has polled hundreds of water and sewerage sites from a single centre since 2008.

The honest caveat is that SCADA tells you the network has a problem; it does not fix the pipe. Ankara runs the same architecture as Istanbul and opened its 2025-2029 strategic plan at a 42% loss rate. Algiers publishes no loss rate at all. Instrumentation and consequence are separate purchases — and a control room without a repair budget only documents the leak more precisely.