Barnaul’s Digital Water Utility: A Unified Platform Is Changing How the City Manages Its Water Supply
Barnaul has begun upgrading its municipal water utility’s data collection system. Information on water pressure, flow and levels will now feed into a common platform that engineers and dispatchers can access in real time.
Barnaul Vodokanal LLC, part of Rosvodokanal Barnaul, is consolidating sensors scattered across its facilities into a single digital system. During the first stage of the automated data collection system upgrade, readings from pressure sensors, flow meters and other measuring instruments will be transmitted to a platform accessible to the utility’s engineers and dispatch center professionals. They will now be able to track key water-supply parameters in real time and take preventive action when readings deviate from normal ranges, helping avert accidents before they occur.
The upgrade will initially focus on the central dispatch center and water treatment facilities. A unified digital system is expected to improve data quality and reporting while reducing water losses. More precise monitoring of flow rates and water levels in treatment-system reservoirs will help achieve those gains.
What matters here is that the project goes beyond installing new smart sensors. Its IT architecture is central to the upgrade: Rosvodokanal Barnaul is building its own unified environment for collecting and processing telemetry from remote utility infrastructure. That will give dispatchers and engineers a single view of system operations and allow them to respond quickly when operating conditions change.
For Barnaul residents, the upgrade should mean a more reliable water supply, fewer service failures and faster response when problems do occur.
Toward an Intelligent Water Utility
Over time, Rosvodokanal Barnaul could connect all its facilities to the unified management environment. That would make it possible to create a digital twin of the utility infrastructure and apply neural-network algorithms both to operations and predictive analytics. In turn, these capabilities could further improve operational efficiency and equipment reliability.
Similar approaches are becoming increasingly common in Russian cities. Many are deploying Tsifrovoy vodokanal (Digital Water Utility), a system developed by Rosatom Infrastructure Solutions, a division of Rosatom. The technology also has strong export potential. In 2023, Rosatom signed three agreements with Belarusian partners on joint projects, including Smart City technologies. In 2026, Russian systems were showcased in Minsk at the international seminar Tsifrovoy vodokanal: opredelenie osnovnykh putey razvitiya, problemnye voprosy i puti ikh resheniya (Digital Water Utility: Identifying Key Development Paths, Challenges and Solutions).
From Smart Sensors to Integrated Diagnostics
Barnaul’s experience is part of a broader Russian trend. The first steps toward introducing digital technology into water utilities date back to 2013, when NOVOGOR-Prikamye began the process in Perm.
Large-scale digitization of the sector began in 2018 under the government programs Umnyy gorod (Smart City) and Tsifrovaya ekonomika (Digital Economy). In 2021, Rosatom Infrastructure Solutions began full-scale operation of its Tsifrovoy vodokanal system in Glazov, in the Udmurt Republic. Deployments later began in the Belgorod, Voronezh, Lipetsk and other regions. Meanwhile, MTS launched its own Tsifrovoy vodokanal pilot project in Kopeysk in 2022.
In recent years, utilities have been systematically upgrading their systems. And once again, the shift goes beyond installing smart sensors: companies are building unified digital environments for infrastructure management.
From Response to Prediction
The Barnaul water utility upgrade is another example of the digital transformation of critical urban infrastructure. Major state corporations and smaller market participants alike are moving in this direction. Both follow the same logic: intelligent monitoring and management systems can improve the performance of pumping stations, treatment facilities and other equipment while allowing utilities to shift toward proactive management of water networks.
The benefits extend beyond identifying potential trouble spots and preventing failures before they happen. Utilities can also plan operations more effectively, developing more accurate schedules for repairs, procurement and preventive equipment maintenance. For consumers, the payoff is reliable, high-quality water service.
