CONSAC case study: 50+ municipalities in the Salerno area, water losses under control
How we mapped over 50 municipalities in the province of Salerno using thermography, ground-penetrating radar and GIS, shifting from emergency spending to planned investment in tackling water losses.
In Campania, water loss rates are among the highest in Italy: in some areas, between 60% and 70% of the water fed into the network is lost. For an operator like CONSAC, in a territory where water often has to be pumped up to hilltop villages, every litre lost is not just water that vanishes: it is money burning on the electricity bill.
The context: a vast network and a race against time
We worked on the water network of the province of Salerno, covering more than 50 municipal territories. Operating from May to December meant spanning both the period of peak drought and network stress (summer, with the surge of tourists in the Cilento) and the start of the rainy season: this allowed us to see how the network responds to different conditions.
The approach: turning the network into data
Digital-Enterprise's strategy is not a technical exercise for its own sake, but a genuine digital check-up of the network. It unfolds in three phases:
- Digitisation — creation of the KML files that define the exact position of pipes, valves and nodes.
- Monitoring and analysis — cross-referencing flow and pressure data with field surveys (correlators and geophones) and with aerial and ground-based thermography.
- Georeferenced detection — every leak is "pinned" on the map: maintenance crews arrive right on target.
The results
- 50+ municipalities mapped across the province of Salerno.
- ~80% preliminary accuracy in detecting leaks, later confirmed with geophone surveys and acoustic ground analysis.
- A WebGIS platform with an anomaly catalogue (ID, coordinates, severity, photos), intervention history and KPIs.
Finding a leak with the thermographic drone costs infinitely less than continuing to ignore it on the bill.
Why it pays off: the economics of data
Acting before the pipe bursts is a financial decision, not just a technical one:
- Cutting the electricity bill — without monitoring, you pay 100% of the energy to deliver even just 40% of the water. By reducing Class 2 and 3 losses, you immediately bring down the consumption of pumping stations.
- No wasted digs — an excavation in the wrong spot is pure cost. With GPS precision, we bring crews straight to the exact point of the break.
- Prevention vs emergency — repairing in Class 1 (prevention) costs 1×; intervening in Class 3 (emergency) costs up to 10×, factoring in overtime, third-party damages, water tankers and service disruptions.
Scalable across all of Italy
The method is replicable, and today we offer it to water operators and municipalities throughout Italy, especially in view of the ARERA targets and the PNRR funds dedicated to reducing losses. From the logic of reactive "emergency spending" to that of proactive planned investment: every intervention becomes a decision based on the certainty of data, not on guesswork.