Smart Manhole Covers Enhance Urban Safety and Efficiency

In 2021, urban safety in cities like Nanjing, Wuxi, Xuzhou, and Suzhou received a significant boost. Traditional manhole covers, once vulnerable due to manual monitoring, were transformed into smart, connected assets.

This project tells the story of how a network of sensors turned every manhole cover into a vigilant sentinel. With continuous reporting on position, status, and environmental conditions, operators could now foresee and address potential hazards before they escalated. The real-time data not only streamlined maintenance schedules but also ensured that the overall safety of urban power networks was never compromised. For city managers and maintenance crews alike, this upgrade meant a new era of efficiency—where technology provided the insight to preempt problems and secure critical infrastructure.