SCADA is a control system that collects data from remote sites such as pumps, tanks and wells and lets operators watch and run them from a control room.
SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is the system a water utility uses to watch and run sites spread over a wide area, such as pumping stations, reservoirs, treatment plants, wells and river intakes, from one or more control rooms. A SCADA system has field devices, a communication network and a central master. At each site, sensors measure level, flow, pressure, pump status and water quality. A remote terminal unit (RTU) or programmable logic controller (PLC) reads these signals and can start or stop pumps and open or close valves. The network links sites to the centre by radio, cellular, fibre or leased line. At the centre, servers poll the sites, store values in a historian database and show them on screens called the human-machine interface (HMI), where operators see alarms and send commands. In water, SCADA is used to keep tanks between set levels, run pumps at off-peak power hours, raise alarms on low chlorine or high pressure, and record flows for reporting. For example, when a service reservoir falls to 40% full, the RTU at that site reports it, and the system starts a pump at the source works until the level reaches 90%. SCADA gives a live view of the whole network and keeps long records that are useful for hydraulic models and leak studies. Its limits are cost, the need for skilled staff, and older communication protocols that were designed without security in mind. Systems that were once kept apart are now often linked to office networks and the internet, which exposes them to cyber attack. Utilities reduce the risk with network segmentation, strong access control, patching and offline backups. Data quality also needs care, as failed sensors and communication gaps leave holes in the record.