Kungsbacka kommun
kungsbacka.seSince 2022, Kungsbacka Municipality has been using Smartvatten Neuro in parts of its wastewater network. The municipality manages an extensive system consisting of 550 km of wastewater pipes, 400 km of stormwater pipes, and 160 pumping stations, including treatment plants and large catchment areas.
One of the biggest long-standing challenges has been inflow and infiltration water – water that should not enter the sewer network but still finds its way in through, for example, incorrect connections or leaks in aging pipelines.
“The purpose of using Smartvatten’s services has been to identify infiltration and inflow water,” says Ann-Charlotte Svensson, Project Manager for Water and Wastewater Planning at Kungsbacka Municipality.
The municipality invests approximately €1 million annually in efforts to reduce inflow and infiltration. To ensure these measures have a real impact, reliable data and the ability to track changes over time are essential.
Previously, much of the work on infiltration water relied on manual analyses, troubleshooting, and experience-based assessments. With Smartvatten Neuro, data is now continuously collected from the sewer network and analysed using both statistical methods and machine learning. This makes it possible to identify anomalies that would otherwise be difficult to detect.
“Smartvatten is an important part of our work to obtain accurate measurement results and understand the true situation in the network. The data gives us a completely different foundation for both reporting and planning,” says Ann-Charlotte Svensson.
Currently, a large-scale effort is underway where each pumping station catchment area is reviewed step by step. Pipelines are inspected, internally filmed, and relined when necessary. The municipality is also conducting an inventory of property connections where property owners with incorrect connections are required to separate stormwater from wastewater pipes.
This work is time-consuming and can take up to two years per area, often involving collaboration with property owners since issues are frequently found in private service connections.
A clear example of the benefits of Smartvatten Neuro occurred in autumn 2025, when a major water leak developed in one area. Nearly two percent of the municipality’s total water consumption was lost.
“Water was entering the wastewater network, and we could see that the infiltration had suddenly increased without explanation. Our contact at Smartvatten immediately reached out when the anomaly was detected. We were able to take action quickly. Without Smartvatten, it would have taken much longer to discover the leak because it was not visible above ground,” says Felix van der Heiden, Design Engineer for Water and Wastewater Planning.
The machine learning-based leak detection makes it possible to distinguish real anomalies from temporary flow spikes. The result is fewer but more relevant alerts, allowing the municipality to focus on issues that actually require action.
Kungsbacka Municipality has established a dedicated working group focused on infiltration water, where Smartvatten has become an integral part of the process.
At Smartvatten, the collaboration with the municipality is seen as an important example of proactive water management.
“Kungsbacka Municipality is an excellent example of how municipalities can take clear responsibility for water management and work long-term with the support of data. They show the way by not only measuring but also following up and turning insights into concrete actions. For us at Smartvatten, the collaboration is both close and open, and we are truly pleased to continue developing even more efficient water management together with Kungsbacka as a natural part of the municipality’s sustainability efforts,” says Customer Success Manager Titti Wästlund.
Kungsbacka is a coastal municipality with extensive natural areas and beaches, and a wastewater system that must handle both everyday loads and extreme weather events. Climate change, with an increased risk of heavy rainfall, makes the need for controlled flows even more critical.
“The more controlled the flow is, the greater the environmental benefits. We should not treat water that does not need treatment. Reduced flows also mean lower energy consumption and less use of chemicals. In one of our pumping station areas, we have seen in measurement data before and after interventions how peak flows have been reduced. Since measures such as relining and separating stormwater from properties were implemented, we seem to have avoided overflow events over the past six months,” says Ann-Charlotte Svensson.
There is also a clear ambition to expand the digital approach in the future.
“More measurement points would give us even better data and a stronger strategic basis for decision-making. That is where we want to go, but we need to take it step by step,” she adds.
Smartvatten Neuro
Smartvatten Neuro is a data-driven analytics platform for municipalities and water utilities, designed to provide better control over water and wastewater networks.
The platform collects and analyses data from multiple sources such as SCADA systems, flow meters, pumping stations, and weather data to create a comprehensive operational overview.
The service includes leak detection using statistical methods and machine learning to identify pipe bursts, hidden leaks, and other anomalies at an early stage.
Smartvatten Neuro also enables water balance calculations in district metered areas (DMA), monitoring of non-revenue water (NRW), minimum night flow (MNF) analysis, and estimation of inflow and infiltration in wastewater networks.
Through visualisation of key metrics, map views, and continuous analysis, the platform provides a clear decision-making basis for proactive and sustainable water management.
