| March 22, 2023 - World Water Day |
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| ICT4Water Quarterly Newsletter - Special edition |
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Note from the editor
Today is World Water Day. This year World Water Day is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. ICT technology is an important part of the solution and our member projects are working hard shaping tomorrows water systems.
This special edition of the ICT4Water newsletter includes contributions from many of our member projects and a main article from Mr. Gabriel Anzaldi Varas, Dr. Violeta Kuzmickaite, and Dr. Lydia S. Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia, bringing it all together.
Keep up the good work. Learn - Share - Act.
The ICT4Water team
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World Water Day 2023
Data and AI for “Accelerating Change”
Climate change, population growth, urbanization, pollution, and overexploitation are threatening the ecosystem and livelihoods, water, as an important climate connector, requires integrated management approaches to face new challenges. Knowledge of the interactions between the various types of water and its various uses is key to guaranteeing its availability, safety, and protection.
To address these challenges and ensure water security for all, we need to find new ways of managing water resources that are more efficient, sustainable, and equitable. This is where the convergence of disruptive technologies plays an increasingly important role in the management of water resources. Particularly, data and artificial intelligence have become the most promising tool to address this challenging scenario by advancing in their ability to understand complex interrelationships and accelerating in the development of autonomous and predictive models.
Data and AI are powerful technologies that can help water actors in monitor, understand, predict, and manage water systems, becoming accelerators of further effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility in the use of water resources. They can also help us innovate, engage stakeholders, and empower communities. By governing, gathering, managing, and analysing data, we can increase the understanding of how water resources are changing over time, identify areas where actions are needed, and develop strategies to preserve and improve access to water resources, even predictively to anticipate critical scenarios.
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Following some examples of how data and AI currently contribute to optimize the use of the water and minimize sanitation crisis by accelerating a positive change:
- Data and AI can help us monitor water quantity and quality by using various sources of information such as sensors, satellites, drones, or citizen science platforms to collect and analyse real-time or historical data on water availability, use, or pollutants, pathogens, nutrients in water sources. This can help us detect anomalies, identify trends, evaluate impacts, identify risks, inform decision-making, enforce regulations, or raise awareness among consumers.
- Data and AI can help us understand water dynamics and interactions by using advanced methods such as machine learning, deep learning, or natural language processing to extract knowledge and insights from complex datasets such as hydrological models, climate scenarios, or social media posts. This can help us reveal patterns, discover relationships, explain phenomena, or generate hypotheses.
- Data and AI can enhance water supply management by using smart meters, leak detection systems, or predictive models to optimize water distribution networks, reduce losses, or forecast demand. This can help increase efficiency, save costs, or prevent shortages.
- Data and AI can help us predict water outcomes and risks by using sophisticated techniques such as artificial neural networks, support vector machines, or ensemble methods to build predictive models or simulations based on data inputs such as weather forecasts, demand projections, or management scenarios. This can help us anticipate changes, estimate uncertainties, assess vulnerabilities, or optimize decisions.
- Data and AI can help us manage water resources and services by using smart technologies such as internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, or blockchain to enable automation, traceability or coordination of water operations such as irrigation systems, distribution networks, or treatment plants. This can help us improve efficiency, reduce costs, enhance reliability or quality of water resources or services.
- Data and AI can help us innovate new solutions for water challenges by using creative approaches such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), reinforcement learning (RL), or evolutionary algorithms to design novel products services business models policies or partnerships that address specific needs or opportunities. This can help us create value add diversity foster collaboration or inspire change.
- Data and AI can help us engage stakeholders and empower communities by using interactive platforms such as web applications mobile applications chatbots or games to communicate share learn or participate around water issues such as awareness raising education feedback consultation or action taking. This can help us increase transparency accountability participation satisfaction or ownership.
Current advances in artificial intelligence are driving the evolution to a predictive management approach of the water value chain. The use of new digital technologies throughout the whole water cycle is becoming a reality, form day to day, helping water managers to make more informed decisions about how to allocate water resources and plan for future water needs.
This is an extract from an article prepared by Mr. Gabriel Anzaldi Varas, Dr. Violeta Kuzmickaite, and Dr. Lydia S. Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia for World Water Day 2023.
Read the full article here.
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B-WaterSmart
How to accelerate change and become water-smart with the B-WaterSmart project
Accelerating change requires a clear understanding of the direction you are wanting to go. One of the holistic concepts for a future vision that is more and more discussed is water-smartness.
But how can water-smartness be reached?
In the six Living Labs of the B-WaterSmart project the transformation to water-smart societies and economies in coastal Europe and beyond is aspired. Different challenges are tackled by implementing various technical, digital and management solutions that improve the water-smartness of the cities and regions. One of the B-WaterSmart Living Labs is in East Frisia, Germany.
„The world around us is changing rapidly. Climate change and the energy transition bring major challenges and require innovative solutions for drinking- and process water supply in our region, Europe and the world. With the research for the reuse of COW-Water (treated process water from the dairy and milk industry) at the Edewecht site, the B-WaterSmart team
is making an important contribution to protecting drinking water resources for future generations.“
- Kerstin Krömer, Strategic Asset Management, OOWV Brake.
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Figure 1. A water-smart society
To learn more about the project, the Living Labs and the technologies and management solutions, please visit the B-WaterSmart website: https://b-watersmart.eu/
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StopUP
Protecting the aquatic environment from urban runoff pollution
March 22 marks World Water Day, a day to highlight the importance of freshwater and advocate for the sustainable management of water resources. While progress has been made in protecting rivers and lakes through the implementation of urban wastewater treatment infrastructures, it is also crucial to acknowledge the impact that combined sewage overflows and urban surface run-off still pose on the receiving water bodies.
One initiative that aims to address this issue is the Horizon Europe funded StopUp project (grant agreement No 10106042), a collaboration between 11 universities and private companies across Europe and Tunisia. In the framework of this project, innovative technologies of integrated water treatment solutions will be tested and demonstrated in 6 different Case Studies in different urban contexts. By combining modelling of complex urban catchments, water sampling and continuous water quality measurements, we aim to better understand pollution sources and pathways in these catchments.
Pollution from combined sewage overflow and stormwater runoff are highly linked to rainfall. Most pollutants are released and enter our rivers and streams during short events that are difficult to capture in manual sampling campaigns. Low cost IoT (Internet of Things) sensors at multiple locations can measure water quality parameters continuously and in real-time, allowing for a more correct evaluation of rainfall and water quality on the ground. Another aspect in the use of IoT sensors is the coupling with auto-samplers to take water samples during rain events for analysis in the lab. Within the StopUP project we will combine IoT-sensors, real-time online data processing and hybrid modelling to decide on the opportune moment and location for sampling. Auto-samplers installed in the catchment will then be triggered for sampling at these specific moments. This innovative approach of event-driven in-situ sampling will allow us to much better capture pollutants that are only sporadically released but have a large impact on natural aquatic ecosystems. We will also investigate if basic water quality parameters that are measured easily continuously, can serve as proxies for certain pollutants that are more difficult to measure.
This way, these online sensors help us to investigate the impact of combined sewer overflows and urban runoff on our water resources and evaluate the efficiency of new water treatment solutions that are being tested in different case studies of the project.
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Overall the findings in StopUP will be used to derive tools to better monitor urban pollution of waterways and support the selection, implementation, and operation of pollutant mitigation measures for end-users, including environmental authorities, water boards/utilities, and consultancies. The aim is to come to innovative technologies for pollution prevention that are both affordable and acceptable to end-users and society. This way we can take an important step forward in protecting our water resources and ensuring a sustainable future for our planet. You can find more information on the project’s homepage: https://stopup.eu/
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IMPETUS
Turning climate commitments into action
IMPETUS is working with stakeholders in 7 biogeographical demo sites (DS) across Europe to assess risks and propose measures for adaptation to climate-change induced water shortage, drought, and compromised water quality. Using remote sensing data, water quality analysis, AI-based models and by involving stakeholders at the regional and sub-regional scale, the project will design and implement Resilience Knowledge Boosters
tailored to the context, needs and potential for solutions of each DS.
Examples include:
- In Berlin Brandenburg (Continental DS) an integrated regional water management strategy for the metropolitan region will be assessed, looking at challenges in this partially closed water cycle of water management under changing climatic and demographic conditions, reduced water inflows, increasing amounts of wastewater effluents, and CSO/stormwater impacts. Using water balance models to work through different scenarios, a multi-stakeholder approach for regional water management with the Decision Theatre method will be applied.
- On the coast of Catalonia (Coastal DS), a compact hybrid decentralised reclamation system using anaerobic granular membrane treatments will be installed at camping sites to generate water for irrigation and cleaning, with analysis of wastewater samples. In Barcelona, another task will predict and pre-empt biological and chemical water quality deterioration in extreme storm events, which have been on the rise due to climate change in combination with the DS topography and highly urbanised setting.
- In Attica (Mediterranean DS), a sewer mining unit will be designed, built, and deployed so reclaimed water can be re-used at the point of demand for urban irrigation purposes. To achieve this, samples from the local sewage network have been analysed. This activity requires very close work with public stakeholders to obtain access and permission to install the unit. Working with local farmer communities, municipalities and businesses, a water-energy masterplan and associated business plan will also be developed regarding re-used water and nutrients extracted from the integrated wastewater system. This will provide support for sensitive groundwater bodies under severe stress, and for firefighting and reforestation activities in the region devastated by forest fires. A mix of financial instruments (incl. insurance and water/weather derivatives) shall be used to ensure the plan’s viability and uncertainty-proofing given climate change.
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MAR2PROTECT
Protecting groundwater from climate and global change effects
MAR2PROTECT will provide a holistic approach to prevent groundwater contamination from the impacts of climate change and global change, through different innovative technologies.
The main idea consists in a tool supported by Artificial Intelligence that will receive real-time information from sensors placed in risk locations where the technologies will be implemented, among other vitally important information (innovative technologies, preferences of social agents, risk assessment…).
The tool will allow a new generation of Managed Aquifer Recharge approach to improve groundwater quality and quantity. The core of the innovative Managed Aquifer Recharge is the M-AI-R Decision Support System which will incorporate technological and societal engagement information using an Artificial Intelligence-based evaluation to improve groundwater quality and quantity
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To ensure a high replication potential, M-AI-R Decision Support System will collect information from 7 demo sites in 4 European countries (Portugal, Italy, Spain, Netherlands) and 2 in non-European countries (Tunisia, South Africa) which were carefully chosen by their degree of maturity from previous successful projects and a wide range of settings in terms of climatic conditions, water sources, type of pollution, Managed Aquifer Recharge scheme and political/societal context.
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| ICT4Water |
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| Action Group Intelligent and Smart Systems (ISS) |
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The year 2022 has seen the launch of the Horizon Europe program with a number of projects addressing the Missions defined by the European Union. A large number of these projects are in the Water domain. In harmony with the new and live projects, the Intelligent and Smart Systems (ISS) working group of the ICT4Cluster is adapting its activities to implement the latest release of the ICT4WATER action plan.
The first step for the ISS working group is to establish a high-level architecture to map most promising projects for wider implementation of intelligent and smart systems in the Water domain. The proposed architecture will contain features such as data brokering, data models, digital twins, advanced decision-making tools, advanced visualization, and soft sensors to demonstrate the impacted on cities & territories, agriculture, energy, etc. given the uncertainties brought by climate change.
Does your project deal with developments, demonstrations or validations in any of the mentioned fields? Please contact the ISS team, so we can include relevant and up-to-date information on your project in the planned architecture document.
On behalf of the ISS working group:
Franck le Gall (Franck.le-gall@egm.io)
Evina Katsou (evina.katsou_at_brunel.ac.uk)
Joep van den Broeke (joep.van.den.broeke_at_kwrwater.nl)
Demetrios Eliades (eliades.demetrios_at_ucy.ac.cy)
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CETAQUA
Computer Vision: Artificial Intelligence Applied to Change Water Cycle Rules
Continuous improvement in water treatment processes has become essential for the water stakeholder ecosystem. For wastewater operators specifically, this scenario is embodied in the transformation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to biofactories, that are facilities to ensure high-efficiency operations and enable the recovery of value-added by-products and energy from wastewater.
Artificial intelligence has become the most promising tool to address this challenging scenario. Computer vision solutions can serve to automatically monitor the status of multiple assets and processes in the water cycle and generate alerts when situations requiring action are detected. From the appearance of foams in wastewater treatment processes to the detection of blockages or defects in distribution or sanitation networks, the use cases with high operational impact are multiplying. Computer vision is set to generate a new scenario of digital services based on the capacity for early detection of events and intelligent alerts about anomalies in processes.
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Cetaqua, the water technology centre, has a line of research focused on developing computer vision solutions that have generated results in the last two years that have been successfully transferred to water cycle operations. In the field of wastewater treatment, the water technology centre has built a system for the detection and mitigation of foaming episodes in plants. In addition, applications in drinking water treatment are being explored, such as analyzing various water quality parameters using computer vision at AigĂĽes de Barcelona's Sant Joan DespĂ Drinking Water Treatment Plant (DWTP).
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Computer vision can be an advanced tool that propels the change of the operation model and the efficiency of the water cycle. The combination of the brute force of artificial intelligence and the expert knowledge of water operators is key to ensuring the maximum utility of the results.
Read the full article here (in Spanish).
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aqua3S
aqua3S project and pilots
aqua3S is a Horizon 2020 funded project that started in September 2019, and now it is in its last year of life span. The main objective of the project was to create standardized methods and strategies for water safety and security for all involved stakeholders. Towards this goal, the aqua3S platform was developed that incorporated data from sensors, either existing ones or new innovative sensors, from social media, satellites, UAVs, and CCTVs. The collected data were smartly interconnected, raising alarms when anomalies are detected, providing real-time assessment for the crisis severity level, and allowing the creation of historic reports. All the aforementioned information is visualized in GIS maps and graphs.
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Figure 1. Pilot in Thessaloniki
The platform along with the developed sensors have been tested in several pilots organized throughout Europe – more specifically, in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Belgium and Bulgaria. Specifically, during the first year of the project, TableTop exercises were organized in Bulgaria and Italy and data from the legacy sensors was tested using synthetic data. During the second year of the project, pilots were realized that incorporated data from devices, satellite and social media and test of the first version of the two aqua3S sensors were realized in Italy, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. Finally, during the final year of the project data from all sources were incorporated and tested in the Greek and Belgium pilots while the data used were real data coming from the system. In both pilots, both innovative sensors were incorporated into the water operators premises.
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Figure 2. aqua3S platform in Brussels pilot (VVQ)
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Figure 3. Installation of RI sensor in Brussels pilot (VVQ).
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The projects in the ICT4Water cluster received funding from the European Union’s LIFE, Horizon2020 or Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
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