Incheon Smart Remote Water Metering & Leak Detection
Incheon's water utility has fitted IoT communication terminals to digital water meters since a 2021 pilot (63,000 connections), enabling remote readings every six hours instead of monthly. Coverage reached 165,000 of 441,000 connections (37%) by end of 2024, used to flag abnormal flow and suspected leaks in near-real time. Full citywide rollout is targeted for 2026.
📊 Impact
Coverage grew from a 63,000-connection pilot (2021) to 165,000 of 441,000 connections (37%) by end of 2024, en route to a stated 2026 target of citywide completion; readings are now taken every 6 hours versus previously monthly.
🎓 Lesson
Incheon phased the rollout by targeting high-water-loss, hard-to-read and remote areas first — a sequencing choice that let leak-detection benefits arrive before full citywide coverage was reached.
Sources
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Incheon Smart Remote Water Metering & Leak Detection” — Incheon, South Korea. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/incheon-smart-water-metering/ (last verified 2026-07-27). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
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