electronics

Article
Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Wastewater Management in
Smart Cities
Abdullah I. A. Alzahrani 1 , Sajjad Hussain Chauhdary 2, * and Abdulrahman A. Alshdadi 3

1 Department of Computer Science, Collage of Science and Humanities in Al Quwaiiyah, Shaqra University,
Shaqra 11961, Saudi Arabia; [email protected]
2 Department of Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence, College of Computer Science and Engineering,
University of Jeddah, Jeddah 23890, Saudi Arabia
3 Department of Information and System Technology, College of Computer Science and Engineering,
University of Jeddah, Jeddah 23890, Saudi Arabia; [email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract: Wastewater management is a mechanism that is used to extract and refine pollutants
from wastewater or drainage that can be recycled to the water supply with minimal environmental
effects. New methods and techniques are required to ensure safe and smart wastewater management
systems in smart cities because of the present deteriorating environmental state. Wireless sensor
networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) represent promising wastewater treatment technologies.
The elaborated literature survey formulates a conceptual framework with an Internet of Things
(IoT)-based wastewater management system in smart cities (IoT-WMS) using blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology is now being used to store information to develop an incentive model for
encouraging the reuse of wastewater. Concerning the quality and quantity of recycled wastewater,
tokens are issued to households/industries in smart cities. Nevertheless, this often encourages
tampering with the information from which these tokens are awarded to include certain rewards.
Anomaly detector algorithms are used to identify the possible IoT sensor data which has been
tampered with by intruders. The model employs IoT sensors together with quality metrics to measure
the amount of wastewater produced and reused. The simulation analysis shows that the proposed
method achieves a high wastewater recycling rate of 96.3%, an efficiency ratio of 88.7%, a low moisture
content ratio of 32.4%, an increased wastewater reuse of 90.8%, and a prediction ratio of 92.5%.
Citation: Alzahrani, A.I.A.;
Chauhdary, S.H.; Alshdadi, A.A.
Keywords: Internet of Things; wireless sensor networks; smart city; wastewater management
Internet of Things (IoT)-Based
Wastewater Management in Smart
Cities. Electronics 2023, 12, 2590.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
electronics12122590 1. Introduction

Academic Editor: Domenico Ursino

Water must be safe enough to be used for drinking, washing, and industrial use.
Wastewater is any water that needs cleaning after use. The purpose of wastewater man-
Received: 2 April 2023 agement is to preserve wastewater [1]. Untreated wastewater chemicals and pathogens
Revised: 1 June 2023 can harm animals, plants, and birds that live in or near the water. Healthy wastewater
Accepted: 5 June 2023 management helps to reuse the water volume instead of waste it [2]. Thus, it contaminates
Published: 8 June 2023
crops and drinking water which impacts human health. Wastewater is a water supply with
many uses, when correctly processed [3]. Treatment of wastewater is essential to protect
many different habitats [4]. The beneficial use of wastewater often decreases the impacts
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
of wastewater or industrial effluent contamination on the environment. The end usage of
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
wastewater defines the appropriate water quality and safety control procedures [5].
This article is an open access article Increased urbanization poses a danger of water shortages. Safe drinking water is
distributed under the terms and one of the basic human needs. This refers to the notion of wastewater reuse and recy-
conditions of the Creative Commons cling [6]. The recycled wastewater is contained in an underground sump, and it is used
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// for planting water. Using recycled water eliminates the dependence on ever costlier and
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ cheaper groundwater for such applications [7] and will minimize the overflow and reduce
4.0/). wastewater discharge into rivers and oceans. Similar treatment standards occur for specific

Electronics 2023, 12, 2590. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122590 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics

Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 2 of 14

applications of water [8]. Treated and recycled wastewater offers an inexpensive supply
that eliminates the demand and burden on freshwater supplies such as groundwater, rivers,
and reservoirs [9]. In the areas impacted by water shortages and drought, this is especially
relevant. Wastewater that is not extracted and recycled is often discharged into the wide
water bodies [10]. The recycling of wastewater is the best way to prevent potential water
depletion and minimize contamination that harms the ecosystem. Untreated wastewater
does not automatically decompose [11].
Wastewater treatment is used to extract pollutants from waste or sewage and transform
them into wastewater that can be reused for other uses (called water recovery) or added to
the water supply with an associated environmental impact [12]. In a basic central device
setup, a wireless sensor network is required, with the base terminal operating as the central
hub [13]. The data are obtained, preserved, and analyzed afterwards. The hardware
comprises a pump, a fluidic chamber, and various sensor nodes for tracking the fluid’s
color changes [14]. The change of color is tracked independently in the channel cabinet and
the bulk solution. To track atmospheric conditions such as light levels and temperature,
sensor nodes are often used [15]. An experiment showed the usefulness of wireless sensing
in controlling water purification treatments.
Through detecting and avoiding mixed sewage and chemical overflows in wastewater
using IoT sensors, intelligent wastewater systems can satisfy the demand for freshwater
within the smart community of the IoT. Freshwater is one of the most valuable natural
commodities that is not available every day. The IoT uses the concept of sensing devices
installed at different points in the water environment for aquatic care [16]. These sensors
capture and transmit data to surveillance systems. These data may include the water
quality, temperature changes, pressure changes, water leakage detection, and chemical
leakage detection. These sensors capture and transmit data to surveillance systems. A smart
water sensor powered by the IoT can monitor the water quality, pressure, and temperature.
In reality, a sensor solution can control the fluid flow throughout the treatment plant and
can be used by a water utility provider. Using blockchain technologies to monitor these
connections can efficiently analyze quantity communications, identify breaches in water
mass balance management, and improve leak detection. If registered data can be changed
retroactively in any particular block without modifying all additional blocks that need to
be agreed by most networks, transaction process transparency and reliable and effective
data management can be instantly enabled. Without the use of blockchain, the system will
require a centralized repository and will be vulnerable to security threats. Moreover, it is
difficult to incentivize the recycling and reuse of wastewater in industries and households
without the concept of tokens/credits in the form of a cryptocurrency. The wastewater
treatment anomaly detection algorithm is used to diagnose irregular actions (anomalies)
and water activities not seen regularly. These can result from attacks on control components,
a network, or the physical surroundings; failures; misconfigurations; or even standard bugs
in the IoT sensors. Therefore, the ability to detect anomalies acts as a protective tool and
helps to build and sustain.
The significant contributions of this paper include:
1. Designing an IoT-WMS for wastewater re-treatment and management to fulfil the
water needs in a smart city.
2. Suggesting a blockchain technology for the reuse of wastewater in smart cities.
3. The anticipated cost-effectiveness and reliability of outputs compared to the current
model undoubtedly eliminates conventional worldwide wastewater management.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 1 introduces the concept of
wastewater management in a smart city. Section 2 presents a discussion on related work.
Section 3 explores the IoT-WMS framework to improve wastewater management and
encourage recycling wastewater in smart cities. Section 4 elaborates on the results and
discussion based on an analysis in Section 3. Section 5 concludes the research with some
future perspectives.
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 3 of 14

2. Related Work
In this section, we present some recent related works and establish their relevance to
our proposed approach. A summary of related work is also presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of related work.

Related Work Problem Addressed Technique Employed
Fresh and eastewater resource management
Vibhas Sukhwani et al. (2020) [17] Knowledge-based conceptual framework
in the rural–urban divide
Determining physio-chemical parameters Monitoring the water quality index
H. K. Pandey et al. (2020) [18]
from samples of groundwater using a geographical information system
Proposed a national
Measuring water-related indicators
B. Essex et al. (2020) [19] blueprint framework (NBF)
to meet clean water and sanitation SDGs
with 24 water-related indicators
Overview of challenges in Analysis of biomarkers in wastewater
María C et al. (2020) [20]
wastewater management to assess the health of the population
On-site decentralized waste Gap analysis to show deficiencies
Spirandelli et al. (2019) (2020) [21]
water management in on-site wastewater management
Real-time control of
Congcong et al. (2020) [22] Cyber physical system
urban water cycle
Sustainable smart city
Nie et al. (2019) [5] Big data analytics and IoT
wastewater treatment
Nutrient water supply prediction
Sathishkumar et al. (2020) [6] Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)
for fruit production
Comparative evaluation of
Jeong et al. (2020) [23] Water Metabolism Framework (WMF)
urban water management
Framework of
Efficiency evaluation of urban water metabolism (UWM)
Landa-Cansigno et al. (2020) [24]
water recycling techniques and water–energy–pollution
nexus (WEPN)
Improvement of prediction accuracy
Ojagh et al. (2021) [25] Hybrid edge–cloud preprocessing framework
in an IoT-based monitoring system

Vibhas Sukhwani et al. [17] discussed the development of smart urban–rural linkages
in a metropolitan area using a water–energy–food nexus-based conceptual approach. To an-
swer this necessity, they presented a conceptual knowledge framework (KCF) that provides
an overview of the water supply flow within the NMA between urban and rural areas.
The study shows feasible guidance for intelligently linking future developments in smart
cities with the adjacent Rurban Cluster based on the developed framework. The study also
visualized the water, energy, and food linkages between the urban and rural divide.
H. K. Pandey et al. [18] suggested the GIS and water quality index for groundwater
quality assessments of a smart city. A water quality index and geographic information
system was used to determine groundwater samples’ physico-chemical parameters for
drinking purposes. The contamination level in the area was exacerbated by groundwater
exploitation, urban planning, and anthropogenic practices.
B. Essex et al. [19] introduced the national blueprint framework (NBA) for the Sustain-
able Development Goals to monitor progress on water-related goals in Europe. The 17 Sus-
tainable Development Goals (SDGs), endorsed by 169 countries, face significant obsta-
cles in adoption by national governments. A national blueprint framework (NBF) with
24 water-related indicators based on SDG Six, each with a specific goal, was created.
María C et al. [20] inferred wastewater management using paradigm shifts and current
challenges. Wastewater is a major environmental and public health concern, and since
ancient times, its management has been a relentless task. In recent decades, drainage
analysis has grown exponentially. This paper offered a global review of growing wastewater
science to recognize existing problems and paradigm shifts. Wastewater studies can answer
global issues, such as the public approval of water conservation or access for almost
one-third of the world’s population to basic sanitation.
The authors of [21] developed decentralized wastewater based on a management
policy gap analysis. On-site wastewater treatment (OWTS) schemes have been planned
for the decentralization of wastewater on site. The study indicates a lack of coordination
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 4 of 14

between land use and water baseline preparation, efficiency priorities, system inventories,
public outreach, homeowner education, routine inspections, and maintenance processes.
In [22], the author suggests a cyber-physical systems management framework (CPSMF)
for real-time control of the urban underwater cycle. Vital infrastructure, or urban life
functioning, needs to be installed in the urban water cycle (UWC), including the water
supply systems and the urban drainage system (UDS). This paper suggests a CPS-based
management framework that allows control, interoperability, and automated optimization
of the UWC to maximize the benefits from CPSs.
The author of [5] introduces Big Data analytics and the IoT into operation safety
management underwater. An intelligent society such as a smart city is defined by a place
where people live well, plan their lives long term, ensure sustainability, and do the least
harm to the physical environment by ICTs. This paper analyses the Supervisory Controller
and Data Acquirement (SCADA) approach to sustainable smart city water treatment based
on the Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics. Big data analysis is a new technological
term implying the processing of vast volumes of relevant data from installed IoT sensors to
monitor the device’s physical status, utilization, and efficiency.
Seongpil Jeong et al. [23] used a Water Metabolism Framework (WMF) to evaluate ur-
ban water management in a comparative analysis of three regions. In Korea and elsewhere,
sustainable water conservation focuses on water conservation and reuse, as the climate
and environmental transitions raise the importance of water insecurity. In Ulsan, water
is being abstracted. The river’s water supply is less sustainable and more vulnerable to
weather threats than Seoul, thus making Ulsan’s water infrastructure less sustainable and
more vulnerable.
Oriana Landa-Cansigno et al. [24] discussed the integrated framework of the urban
water metabolism (UWM) and the water–energy–pollution nexus (WEPN) for an efficiency
evaluation of water recycling techniques. This paper analyses metabolic efficiency and its
effect on a variety of centralized and decentralized water reuse policies and the WEPN on
integral UWSs. The findings suggest a metabolism measurement of the output in a complex
system such as an UWS will illustrate the degree of the interactions among the nexus (e.g.,
water, energy, and pollution) components.
IoT-based systems employed in applications similar to wastewater management sys-
tems, e.g., air quality monitoring systems, exhibit a loss in accuracy compared to the
traditional measurement systems due to missing values and noisy data. The authors of [25]
improved the prediction accuracy of a real-world IoT-based air quality monitoring system
using a hybrid edge–cloud preprocessing framework.

3. Proposed Model: IoT-Based Wastewater Management System (IoT-WMS)

The prospect of water shortages is worrying as population growth rises. This has
sparked the notion of wastewater reuse and recycling. Sensors may therefore be used
for processing and monitoring at various stages of wastewater management. A com-
prehensive literature survey leads the research for developing an IoT-WMS framework.
The IoT-WMS concentrates on cloud security using blockchain technology for the intelli-
gent wastewater management schemes followed by smart cities. This IoT-WMS proposes a
trading system based on the use of blockchain rewards for wastewater recycling. Every
household/industry in the smart city enables the IoT-based wastewater management strat-
egy with sensors and actuators. The basic conceptual structure of the IoT in wastewater
management for smart cities is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows the wastewater management cycle with efficient cloud data visualiza-
tion for decision making. The decision support system performs token (cryptocurrency)
allocation to households/industries regarding the volume of recycled wastewater. Based
on their requirement to reach a minimum threshold volume, households/industries later
resell these tokens. In a smart contract, the guidelines for the token exchange are estab-
lished. Data stored on a blockchain-enabled cloud give inviolable auditing. The smart
contracts often provide an automatic tracking framework with a secure cloud. Supervised
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 5 of 14

and unsupervised learning algorithms are used to detect the manipulation of information
on wastewater recycling in IoT meters by individuals to ensure the robustness of this
model. Effective home automation allows the best usage of water and thereby increases
the performance of the water delivery system and its services. For anomaly identification,
this study utilizes a polynomial regression analysis algorithm. This anomaly monitoring
model has been implemented to detect theft in energy consumption power meters. The
time-series data are the meter readings, so a sequential learning model has been considered
in this work. The IoT helps gain access to knowledge and makes significant decisions by
obtaining various sensor values such as soil moisture, water levels, etc.

Figure 1. Domestic wastewater management cycle in smart cities.

3.1. Wastewater Management Architecture with Blockchain Technology

The smart wastewater management framework based on blockchain technology con-
sists of five layers, as shown in Figure 2.
The first layer, named the sensor layer, establishes the various IoT sensors for mon-
itoring water usage and wastewater recycling. The data captured through these sensors
are considered in the second layer called the data collection layer. In this layer, various
industry/household facilities from layer 1, such as pipelines attached with level gauges,
water meters attached water storage tanks, and smart wastewater treatment units fitted
with IoT-based intelligent objects, are able to sense, track, analyze, acquire, and interact
with data concerning the level of water storage, the quantity of water usage, the volume
of wastewater generation, and its recycling volume. The gathered information is further
transmitted to the third layer, the edge computing layer attached with edge nodes/smart
gateways, through accessible internet services such as WiFi, 4G, and 5G for computation,
decision making, collaborative filtering, and transient data storage over a preconfigured
period of time. Using the edge nodes, the aggregated data items are validated through
smart contracts and added to the blockchain. The edge nodes hand over the validated data
units to the cloud server in the fourth layer: the wastewater blockchain located on cloud-
based servers responsible for collecting, storing, processing, monitoring, and managing
blockchain-technology-assisted security operations handling massive data produced from
different IoT-enabled smart cities. In the fifth layers, frameworks for the management and
monitoring of wastewater treatment for recycling and reuse are present. Through smart
contracts, all parties interested in smart city wastewater management and monitoring are
capable of querying the stored information in the blockchain-enabled cloud. For example,
authorized people can access and visualize the data for decision making.
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 6 of 14

Figure 2. Architectural diagram of wastewater management with blockchain technology.

Conceptual Workflow of IoT-WMS

The IoT-WMS framework’s main objective is to oversee and manage the volume
of smart city wastewater recycling remotely using a wastewater treatment unit that ex-
tracts hazardous chemical liquids maintained by each household/industry in a smart city.
The following are a detailed description of various phases involved in the above process:
Phase 1:
Smart IoT sensors and actuators are mounted on various observation decks and
administration devices related to water flow and level monitoring, water collection units,
and wastewater treatment units.
Phase 2:
The deployed IoT devices will identify, process, and collect the water storage level,
usage volume, and wastewater recycling in wastewater treatment. The gathered infor-
mation is communicated to edge devices/nodes through smart gateways with acceptable
technological innovations such as 4G, 5G, and WiFi.
Phase 3:
The edge nodes perform the aggregation of the information gathered by various
database objects. Furthermore, by executing the authentication process, transient data will
be stored on the blockchain. In parallel, for real-time analytics and decision making, it
activates data processing at the edge nodes.
Blockchain is a data structure that holds a database from distributed communication.
Blockchain comprises four main elements that make up its entire architecture. The first
element, the decentralized network, is a peer-to-peer (P2P) link between sensor nodes.
The interactions which happen in the system are managed by all the nodes. The next
element, the distributed ledger, is an eternal, incorruptible, and publicly transparent
archive distributed within network nodes with strengthened traceability. According to a
consensus algorithm, the third element, trades, is checked and confirmed through peers in
the respective network. This assists the ledger in remaining consistent, which guarantees
the ledger modification when those network members accept it. The fourth element, smart
contracts, defines the type of transactions that take place within the network. It helps
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 7 of 14

to exchange tokens/rewards between stakeholders, apply strategies, or define resource

user privileges.
As the application framework for implementing approved blockchain networks, Hy-
perledger Fabric has been used [26–28]. It is an open-source, certified, distributed applica-
tion framework built on blockchain that enables developers to create and deploy distributed
services. The Composer tool is applicable for constructing the logic of the management
platform. Smart contracts are distributed on all endorser nodes of the network in a Fabric
network, and the peers check the transfers as shown in Figure 3. If the transaction is
officially accepted, it is attached to the ledger and then exchanged with all network nodes.
An authorized blockchain guarantees that when they directly reach the network, sectors
are validated. Except for Bitcoin or Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric employs a Kafka-based
consensus rather than Proof-of-Work due to its computation cost. Proof-of-Work gives faith
in a world of trustlessness. The application scenario in this research has a regulatory model
for issuing tokens and rewards, so Proof-of-Work is not needed in this context.

Figure 3. Flow of Hyperledger transaction.

Phase 4:
Each node responsible for validating data units earns a reward for every block to be
authenticated and mined. These rewards (virtual tokens) are traded for different bene-
fits such as obtaining concessions on energy bills, tariffs, taxes, etc. Incentives are then
incorporated into the scheme to encourage clients to support the wastewater management
program in the smart city and invest in it.
Phase 5:
Using smart contracts, the validated data blocks can be submitted to cloud servers
and logged to the blockchain. The cloud infrastructure can provide big data analysis and
analytics capabilities on the collected data for future monitoring and decision making.
Phase 6:
Ultimately, to evaluate water consumption, the volume of toxic chemical liquids
generated, treated, and disposed of by each household/industry in smart cities, various
monitoring and management applications need to be created. In this phase, tokens, re-
ferred to in the Hyperledger Composer as tradable cryptocurrencies, are distributed to
households/industries in the smart city on the basis of their wastewater reuse output. The
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 8 of 14

most productive participant is considered a zero liquid spill strategy and a hundred percent
wastewater is reused in its unit.
Vr
Qf = , for every member unit in smart city (1)
Vp
0
Q f = q(h, s, o, p), (2)
0
T = a1 ∗ Q f + a2 ∗ Q f , (3)

0
where Q f and Q f denote the quantity and quality factors, respectively. T represents the
number of tokens to be issued, while a1 and a2 are constant values above the threshold
values. Tokens are given in compliance with Equations (1)–(3), on the basis of the quality
and quantity of wastewater recycling. For each participant, the threshold criterion for
wastewater recycling differs due to the complexities in treating the various forms of toxins.
When the participant surpasses the threshold, it can trade tokens to other participants who
have not reached the ceiling. Similarly, tokens are often issued to promote greater purity of
filtered water based on efficiency.

3.2. Anomaly Detection

Anomaly detection is inevitable in IoT-WMS because it detects fraud tampering in
the wastewater management sensor readings. This research extends the study with an
algorithm as follows:

Polynomial Regression Analysis

Polynomial regression analysis is an algorithm that forms a relationship between two
variables, such as the input variable (independent), I, and the output variable (dependent),
O. The regression analysis relationship is defined as a polynomial of I in x-th degree,
as shown in (4):
x
Om = τ + ∑ µi Im
x
+ em , (4)
i =1

where τ is the threshold reading value, µi denotes the regression factor for i ∈ {1, 2, 3, . . . , x },
and em represents the error rate with m ∈ {1, 2, 3, . . . , n} for n samples. If the squared
difference between the real value and the expected value approaches the threshold set
based on training results, the analysis model predicts the abnormality. The proposed IoT-
WMS improves the quality of recycled water distributed in smart cities and achieves a high
wastewater recycling rate and efficiency ratio, a lower moisture content ratio, improved
wastewater reuse, and a higher prediction ratio.

4. Simulation Results and Discussion

The proposed IoT-WMS model monitors the recycled wastewater distribution in
a smart city. Various parameters such as the wastewater recycling rate, the efficiency
ratio, the moisture content ratio, the wastewater reuse ratio, and the prediction ratio have
been considered using the proposed IoT-WMS method. The number of devices used for
numerical simulations ranged from 5 to 30 in increments of 5. Each of these devices is
assumed to have the capability of supporting up to 10 sensors. The simulation results
averaged several random placements of sensors in a two-dimensional space. The devices
are distributed in various stages of the wastewater management system, e.g., storage
units, drainage units, recycling units, and water consumption units. A blockchain-based
incentivization method is provided to various stakeholders in a model metropolitan area
and its effect on the above parameters has been analyzed and compared with several
existing approaches. Periodic monitoring of these parameters is performed using a cloud-
based IoT system.
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 9 of 14

4.1. Wastewater Recycling Rate

The wastewater treatment method relies on different factors such as wastewater
temperature, water velocity, water flow, and pH. The productivity of the treatment plant
improves if these parameters are kept within the necessary limits. These parameters must
be carefully controlled to handle water efficiently. The IoT handles the wastewater. The IoT
is a network that can link all devices embedded in electronic systems. Electronic IoT systems
can interact and transfer information with each other. Several physical parameters can be
tracked and communicated to linked equipment such as cell phones and laptops through
different channels through sensors in wastewater treating plants, such as temperature,
flow rate, and water level sensors in various tanks. When the sensors sense anomalies
above the acceptable thresholds of the physical parameters, the IoT can send a warning
to the plant operator via a message or an e-mail and take a control action. Figure 4 shows
the wastewater recycling rate for our proposed approach as a function of the number of
IoT devices deployed within a metropolitan area. The recycling rate is also compared
with several state-of-the-art systems and it has been shown that the performance of the
proposed IoT-WMS system is superior to the existing approaches. Moreover, the recycling
rate improves as the number of deployed devices increases. In other words, the availability
of more measurements and quality feedback helps improve the recycling rate.

Figure 4. Wastewater recycling rate.

4.2. Efficiency Ratio

Effective wastewater collection (WC) is a key factor in smart cities’ service. Smart cities
based on an integrated framework of new technologies can use the Internet of Things (IoT).
Monitoring devices could be used as an assistive technology in wastewater collection to
provide a high quality of service (QoS). The following IoT elements are directly integrated
into ITS and waste disposal control systems: (i) RFID, (ii) sensors, (iii) camera, and (iv)
actuators. We suggest IoT-WMS in this paper as an innovative solution to effectively store
wastewater in smart cities. It includes a data management model for real-time monitoring
of pipes to capture wastewater levels and leverage complex pathways.The system manages
inadequate wastewater collection in inaccessible areas in smart cities. Surveillance cameras
are used to capture the trouble areas and to supply the the controllers with evidence.
The wastewater treatment scheme aims to provide the people of a smart city with a high
standard of operation. Figure 5 shows the efficiency ratio for our proposed approach as a
function of the number of IoT devices deployed within a metropolitan area. The efficiency
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 10 of 14

ratio is also compared with several state-of-the-art systems and it has been shown that
the performance of the proposed IoT-WMS system is superior to the existing approaches.
Moreover, the efficiency ratio improves as the number of deployed devices increases.
In other words, the availability of more measurements and quality feedback helps improve
the efficiency of the wastewater management system.

Figure 5. Efficiency ratio.

4.3. Moisture Content Ratio

The proposed IoT-WMS covers numerous features such as GPS-based remote temper-
ature and moisture sensing and irrigation equipment. It utilizes wireless sensor networks
to record water characteristics and environmental factors continuously. There are multiple
sensor nodes in a smart city at various points. These parameters are tracked from any
remote computer or internet service, and interface sensors with IoT perform the opera-
tions. This is mainly based on reducing water waste and minimizing manual work in the
irrigation sector to save smart cities’ time, resources, and electricity. The system proposes
to allow farmers to continually track the water levels in water tanks and humidity in the
field by remotely monitoring the supply on the internet. When the humidity falls below
a certain level, drip irrigation will be automatically enabled, thereby ensuring maximum
irrigation via the internet. Figure 6 shows the moisture content ratio as a function of the
number of devices. It can be seen that the moisture content ratio is the lowest for our
proposed scheme, with performance of our scheme closest to the UWM-WEPN approach.
Furthermore, increasing the number of devices yields a lower moisture content ratio.

4.4. Wastewater Reuse Ratio

Blockchain or distributed ledger is a promising emerging platform that facilitates the
use of a lack of water supplies to store and maintain. The concept of blockchain recon-
ciliation may be a perfect case of inventive reasoning and opportunities for cooperation
intended to examine the foundational problem of scarcity. The distributed ledger should be
used not only for water use and control of water recovery but can also be used to promote
wastewater sharing and rainwater harvesting for a more prosumer market. Blockchain
could also be used to develop peer-to-peer water trading networks. Prosumers may receive
wastewater for further treatment, reuse, recycling, and disposal over the water processing
life cycle. Blockchain will radically change the way of handling water supplies, from the
diligent use of renewable and fresh water and water use settlement and payment collection
to water use and frequent reporting. Figure 7 shows the wastewater reuse ratio as a function
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 11 of 14

of the number of devices. The wastewater reuse ratio is the best for our proposed system
relative to other recent approaches. The performance of UWM-WEPN is better than the
rest of the approaches, while CPSMF shows a poor relative performance.

Figure 6. Moisture content ratio.

Figure 7. Wastewater reuse ratio.

Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 12 of 14

4.5. Prediction Ratio

It is necessary to control water in any part of its cycle in smart city water management:
from freshwater abstraction, pretreatment, delivery, use, and collection to post-treatment.
By removing pollution and changing the way to treat wastewater, the water quality will
be improved. To ensure water safety, IoT-allowed monitoring systems could be deployed.
Wireless sensors and the anomaly detection algorithm help anticipate leaks, maximizing
resources, sales, running costs, and pipe repair facilities. Through blockchain technologies,
city companies and city municipalities can monitor water delivery and use in real time.
Through this proposed method, it is possible to track the water quality. Water filtration
devices are used to guarantee the water is of good quality, thus reducing water loss.
Predictive management methods used in water plants ensure that problems contributing
to the risk of water pipes failing are evaluated rapidly and efficiently. Figure 8 shows the
prediction ratio. The prediction ratio shows considerable improvement with an increasing
number of IoT devices for all the considered approaches. Furthermore, the predictive
performance of the proposed IoT-WMS systems is better than the rest of the approaches. The
CPSMF approach shows some promise for lower numbers of devices but its performance
deteriorates before improving as the IoT devices transition from a moderate value to a
larger number.
The proposed IoT-WMS improves the quality of recycling water distributed in smart
cities and achieves a high wastewater recycling rate and efficiency ratio, a lower mois-
ture content ratio, improved wastewater reuse, and a better prediction ratio compared to
the cyber-physical systems management framework (CPSMF), the supervisory controller
and data acquirement (SCADA) approach, the Water Metabolism Framework (WMF),
the urban water metabolism method (UWM), and the water–energy–pollution nexus
(WEPN) method.

Figure 8. Prediction ratio.

5. Conclusions
A detailed literature survey helped us to establish a smart wastewater collection
system for smart cities, namely the IoT-WMS system concentrated on cloud protection and
Electronics 2023, 12, 2590 13 of 14

leveraging blockchain technologies. This IoT-WMS uses a trading scheme focused on the
recovery of wastewater using blockchain incentives. Sensors and actuators make the IoT-
based wastewater management strategy available for all households/industries in the smart
city. Compared to existing models, the proposed IoT-WMS for wastewater treatment and
recycling water quality in smart cities achieved a high wastewater recycling rate of 96.3%,
an efficiency ratio of 88.7%, a low moisture content ratio of 32.4%, an increased wastewater
reuse of 90.8%, and a prediction ratio of 92.5%. The proposed approach has limitations
when it comes to the interworking of such systems deployed by several metropolitan
and/or rural areas. A framework to incentivize wastewater quality improvement is more
useful if it allows for reward tokens to be redeemable across various industrial sectors and
facilities. A future extension of this study is to expand the system with in-depth learning
assistance for wastewater management in smart cities using deep learning technology.

Author Contributions: All authors substantially contributed towards the methodology, validation,
formal analysis, and preparation of the original draft. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Funding: The authors extend their appreciation to the deanship of scientific research at Shaqra
University for funding this research work through the project number (SU-ANN-202205).
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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