Smart Company Project: VMM

The Flemish Environment Agency (Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij (VMM)) aims to create a climate-resilient Flemish living environment. Together with its partners and stakeholders, the organization strives to achieve results in the field and influence policy. To do so, they utilize a network of sensors capturing data regarding water and air quality. This led to the establishment of a platform with sensor data on water quality, known as the Internet of Water project (IoW), in collaboration with partners like Aquafin, De Watergroep, VITO, and Imec.

What Sirus provided

Part 1: the Internet of Water platform

The captured data on water quality is standardized on an IoT platform before being made available on the VMM Data Platform (where this data can be accessed). This is where Sirus played a significant role. We ensured the integration of the IoT platform into the VMM ecosystem. Additionally, we expanded the architecture and operational aspect of this IoT platform.

Part 2: Data Services

By using the data available on the data platform, various data services are set up in order to extract this data. One of these data services is the Linked Data Event Streams (LDES) server, which we facilitated with Sirus. Apart from Sirus developer Joris, Thomas and Brecht were involved in this step.

The journey of the Smart Company project

End of 2023

Conclusion of the IoW project. VMM decides to integrate the IoT platform into their VMM environment. Sirus is appointed as the expert to facilitate this integration.

Number 1 styled within an orange geometric shape, representing branding or milestone highlights.

Step 1

We made the IoT platform more robust and extensive, added new components, and deployed it in a production environment. We were responsible from the architecture to the implementation of the IoT platform. This included onboarding data streams, migrating historical data from the Imec platform, and setting up the platform for easy implementation and maintenance through continuous integration and deployment.

Given VMM's high standards for the security of its digital environment, significant adjustments had to be made to the IoT platform. Now that the IoT platform is also part of the VMM ecosystem, you cannot simply install whatever you want on the platform, and you are able work with VMM-specific data.

Number 2 styled within an orange geometric shape, representing branding or milestone highlights.

Step 2

Making incoming data available on the VMM Data Platform through data services.

Together with Geosparc, we set up a Proof of Concept (POC) to deploy data services on the VMM Data Platform. We installed the LDES server, and Geosparc installed their Geoserver. Both utilize data from the data platform. We worked with a test case to demonstrate the feasibility of launching an LDES server that uses data from the VMM Data Platform. LDES enables sharing data with other parties, who can then use this data. We are actively rolling out this solution so that VMM can offer data on air and water quality as LDES streams to its partners.

Technicalities of the project

Services: Functions, App services
Events: Event Hub, Event grid
Data: TimeScaleDb (Postgres), MongoDb (CosmosDb), Blob storage
API Management
DevOps
Infrastructure as Code

JavaScript
Azure: Event Hub, App service, functions, blob storage, analytics
Comunica (transformation to Linked Data)
VSDS LDES server
Terraform (infrastructure as code)
OSLO standards: water quality, observations and measurements, address register, generic

What's next?

After the IoT platform is fully integrated into the VMM environment, integration with the VMM Data Platform will follow. Subsequently, this data can be made available to various stakeholders via data services. For example, we are contributing to the salinization indicator, a tool that visualizes salt water intrusion in watercourses.

What did our Sirus developers think about the project?

"I enjoy complex challenges and this project offered the entire development package: from architecture to implementation and platform analysis, all within the Azure environment. Since a combination of various skills was required for this project, I took on several different roles like Architect, Software Engineer and Data Engineer, which provided a nice variety of tasks. Moreover, I enjoy working on projects that have a societal and ecological significance. The importance of this project cannot be underestimated."

Portrait of Sirus team member, Joris van Vossel smiling in front of a technology-themed background.

Joris Van Vossel Senior IoT Architect & Developer at Sirus

What did the customer think?

“Starting with the Internet of Water project, our knowledge of IoT systems in Azure has expanded significantly. Thanks to the collaboration with a team of experts we were able to build not only a brand new IoT platform, but a truly interoperable platform that is actively used to share data between VMM and it’s partners.”

Pieter De Graef Product Owner IoT Platform, Dataplatform and Services Platform at VMM

Smart Company Project

At Sirus, innovation is at our core. We strive to help build the Smart Companies of the future, and VMM is now part of this innovative future. We are proud to be a part of this collaboration, and if you are to – be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for updates!

Interested to be a part of projects like the Smart Company Project for VMM? Learn more about Sirus’ Smart Company Approach and don’t hesitate to take a look at our careers page!