Last Thursday, May 12, at 9:00 a.m. It was presented in the Enrique D'Etigny auditorium of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM) of the University of Chile, the closing ceremony of the FONDEF ID 19110363 project “OpenWater: Low-cost real-time water metering and monitoring system”.

The seminar consisted of showing the final result of the project, with the presence of authorities, guests, and the general public from different public and private entities, this instance had the participation of different guest presenters, such as Doctor Pablo Álvarez, director of the Water Center of the University of La Serena; Dr. and geologist, Ernesto Ramírez from Arcadis; Doctor and electrical engineer, Francisco Jaramillo; Dr. And assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Juan Salamanca and the academic and director of Open Water, Dr. Sandra Céspedes.

The seminar consisted of showing the final result of the “OpenWater”. which consists of making available to communities, public entities, or community organizations, a complete prototype of a system that will have the right device for water monitoring, low cost, and open hardware. In addition, the monitoring devices are connected to a system that provides accessibility to plans and instructions on how to build it to implement its own use, it also has a data collection system that contributes to the detection of anomalies or events to facilitate the management of water resources.

The event was well received by the public, there were participants from four associated public entities, such as ARCADIS, which has engineering consultancies in the environment, mining, and various domains that need studies in the water and work with these data constantly. On the other hand, the company ESVAL, a Valparaíso sanitation company, is associated, which works directly with water resources and treats fountain and treatment plants. The General Directorate of Waters, DGA, was another of the associated companies in charge of controlling water resources in Chile, and finally the University of Illinois, who made key contributions to aspects of design and data visualization. It was through these partners that it was possible to have more breadth in the project, integrating the knowledge of experts in the area, who worked together to successfully develop and design the project.

The project was made known through different channels of the University of Chile such as NicLabs and Open Beauchef, different talks were also held at events such as the "Hackathon for Water" that was organized by the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Engineering Without Borders Foundation.

At the seminar, Pablo Álvarez from CEAZA was presented as a guest speaker, who demonstrated the problem and the need to have devices for mass measurement, which confirms that the Open Water project is on the right track and that it is a solution that is needed for a current problem since it is necessary to know better the water resources and better understand how the basins work and all the dynamics that exist around the use of water from wells, pumping, pollution, among other things. Today there are already solutions that are still very expensive and more accessible tools are needed so that communities can monitor their own water resources without having to resort to higher costs and without having to remain unaware because they do not have access to measurement devices at the reach of their pocket.

On the other hand, Dr. Juan Salamanca from the University of Illinois presented the possible integrations of more immersive technologies in the future, implementing 3D maps with augmented reality that allow users to see what is being monitored in a closer way for system users. Also, Dr. Ernesto Ramírez, from ARCADIS, presented various projects that show the need to have more monitoring data available, in real-time, and to advance in the deepening of various engineering and hydrology projects.

The FONDEF ID 19110363: “Open Water” project has a public repository where the developments and results are documented, which can be found at niclabs.cl/openwater.