WIE2023 - ICT4Water cluster session

EU policies related to Digital Water

Violeta Kuzmickaite (REA) presented the EU priorities and the commitments to the Water Action Agenda.

She highlighted the European Green Deal where water is a cross-cutting issue and ICT4Water is explicitly mentioned. The evaluation of the Water Framework Directive results showed that both technical development and improved governance for water are needed to realise a boost in water efficiency.

The Zero Pollution Action Plan aims at the prevention and reduction of pollution to water and oceans and facilitate remediation. Key legislative actions of the plan include, among other things, the revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) and the revision of the list of the contaminants of emerging concern. Planned actions include the evaluation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the evaluation of the Bathing Water Directive.

Violeta highlighted the fact that Cluster 6 is the biggest contributor of Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation to the European Green Deal. All of the Cluster’s activities are targeting the Green Deal objectives and Cluster 6 relates to most of the elements of Green Deal. Water Research & Innovation is supported in Horizon Europe primarily through Cluster 6.

WIE2023 - ICT4Water cluster session

Green Deal Dataspace

Sotirios Kanellopoulos (DG ENV) presented the Green Deal Data Space (GDDS), and the work DG ENV is doing in this area. The GDDS is a cross-domain data space for projects and services and covers domains like Smart Sustainable Cities, Circular Economy, Climate Mitigation and Destination Earth. Water is linked to the Zero Pollution domain. Four classes of use-cases were presented:

• Digital Product Passport in value chains
• Data intermediaries
• Integration of 3^rd party systems
• Digital twins

Sotirios asked the projects to focus more on sensitive data that needs to be unlocked to generate value. Milestones in the coming period are the Mayors’s digital assembly, the User Exchange Event DestinE, and the INSPIRE conference. Outcomes from the current coordination and support actions are expected early 2024 and new calls for proposals are expected in the course of 2024. DestinE is expected to go live in the second quarter of 2024.

The full flash report including the presentations can be found here.

WIE2023 - ICT4Water cluster session

Presentation of the ICT4Water Cluster, its scope and thematic Action Groups

Lydia S. Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia (KWR Water Research, ICT4Water AG coordinator) introduced the ICT4Water cluster and provided an overview of the history, activities, and achievements of the cluster. She emphasizes that the cluster is about projects and highlights the publications of the cluster. Finally, the six thematic Action Groups were presented.

WIE2023 - ICT4Water cluster session

Digital Water and EU Policies- Challenges and prospects

Five of the Action Groups shortly presented their key actions and plans for the coming year and their main challenges related to EU water policies.

Action Group Enable Data Sharing (EDS): Xavier Domingo (Eurecat)

Key actions are:

• Development and extension of smart data models.
• Demonstrate value of data sharing in the water sector.

Main challenges and actions related to the policy landscape are:

• Enforce data sharing at the core of EU policies.
• Promote the uptake of standard data models and semantic interoperability.
• Coordination and Support actions on data governance, privacy and security concerns.

Action Group Intelligent and Smart Systems (ISS):  Joep van den Broeke (KWR)

Main topics addressed by Action Group ISS include AI, data analytics, smart sensors, and Decision Support Systems.

Main challenges related to the policy landscape are:

• Water domain governed by a myriad of directives and conventions.
• Recent directives move from traditional monitoring to risk-based approach.
• Directives do not stimulate dynamic / adaptive risk management with modern digital tools.

Key actions are:

• Development of a policy paper that analyses requirements in directives concerning monitoring and risk assessment, provides insights and recommendations how digital technologies can complement and further strengthen a risk-based approach, provides illustrations of using digital and smart technology enablers in risk-based approaches, using examples from ICT4WATER cluster projects, and identifies challenges to a transition to dynamic risk management.
• Update the DSS marketplace based on a new survey (include new projects, update on included projects).

Action Group Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP): Rafael Gimenez (Cetaqua)

Main topics addressed by Action Group CIP include providing digital solutions to strengthen the security and resilience of European Water Critical Infrastructures, technologies for risk management, building awareness and enable risk-informed decision making, and increasing water utilities organizational preparedness under crisis situations. As an example of critical infrastructure Rafael showed the damage to Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam.

Main challenges related to the policy landscape are:

• Encompass and highlight the role of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience of water infrastructures to meet the objectives of the Water Framework Directive.
• Promote informed insight across the Water Community on the key European strategies and instruments on Critical Infrastructure Protection (as water infrastructure is one of them) and cybersecurity of water.

• Align cross-disciplinary efforts to accelerate research projects addressing the major challenges depicted by the Directive.

Key actions related to EU water policies are:

• Consolidate links with relevant initiatives on Data Sharing to integrate CIP data.
• Ensure the continuous addition of new relevant projects into the Action Group (e.g. PathoCERT, WATERVERSE).
• Publish white paper “Raising Awareness on Cybersecurity in the Water Sector”.
• To establish the European Cluster for Securing Critical Infrastructures (ECSI)

ARSINOE

Climate-resilient regions through systemic solutions and innovations

ARSINOE will apply a three-tier approach to address the growing complexity, interdependencies and interconnectedness of modern societies and economies and propose climate change adaptation solutions. This approach is showcased in nine demonstrators, as a proof-of-concept with regards to its applicability, replicability, potential and efficacy.

IMPETUS

Dynamic information management approach for the implementation of climate resilient adaptation packages in European regions

Goal is to develop and validate a coherent multi-scale, multi-level and cross-sectoral climate change adaptation framework to accelerate the transition towards a climate-neutral and sustainable economy.

ULTIMATE

Industry water-utility symbiosis for a smarter water society

The project contributes to the transition from a linear to a circular economy to make Europe and its industries less vulnerable. ULTIMATE collaborates with the CIRSEAU, ICT4Water and BIOREFINE clusters, and Water Europe.

WATERLINE

Transforming advanced water skilling through the creation of a network of Extended Reality Water Emulative Centres

WATERLINE’s main aim is to create a European Digital Water Higher Education Institution Alliance, based on the quadruple helix model of innovation.

PathoCERT

Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies

PathoCERT project aims to strengthen the coordination capability of first responders in the event that they have to work in places where the risk of contamination via water is high.

Water-Futures

Smart Water Futures: designing the next generation of urban drinking water systems

The project, which ss co-funded by the ERC Synergy Grant, will result in a theoretical and practical basis for a generic framework, together with applied research tools, that could support decisions for the provisioning of future water services to more than two-thirds of the world’s population that is expected to inhabit our cities by 2050.

ToDrinQ

Toolkit for adaptable, resilient installations securing high quality drinking water

The project aims to improve the design and operation of water treatment plants, increase drinking water system resilience, and ensure high-quality drinking water by minimising micropollutants, pathogens and disinfection by-products.

WATERVERSE

Water Data Management Ecosystem for Water Data Spaces

With the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the integration of ICT achievements in the water industry, significant progress has been made towards the digitalisation of the water sector. This digital transition generates challenges that should be overcome so that water utilities can successfully pave the way for a smart water society. Tailor-made digital solutions applied in diverse sizes water utilities make the fragmented sector and difficult to establish industry-wide standards. The ageing water infrastructure along with the need for upgrading the data management processes can be both an obstacle and a lever in achieving greater transparency and efficient water management. Furthermore, the data-sharing trustworthiness and interoperability remain key challenges hindering the production processes to become long-term sustainable.

To overcome these challenges, WATERVERSE aims to develop a Water Data Management Ecosystem (WDME) for making data management practices and resources in the water sector accessible, affordable, secure, FAIR, and easy to use. WATERVERSE will set up a base for efficient Data Management, by encompassing cutting-edge technologies and empowering data sharing, interoperability, and trustworthiness by the utilisation of the data space components and building blocks already available from FIWARE and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA). The adoption of FAIR and Meloda 5 principles will create a trustworthy ecosystem fostering the intra and cross-sectoral data/information exchange. WATEVERSE will be setup and demonstrated in real environment with relevant and diverse case studies involving water sector stakeholders from 6 countries (Cyprus, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland).