July 2021 |
|
ICT4Water Quarterly Newsletter |
|
|
|
Note from the editor
Welcome to already the 26th ICT4Water newsletter. The theme of this edition is Business Models.
We are proud to share the news that input from the ICT4Water cluster and its member projects was recognised and included in the officially published staff working document "Digital Solutions for Zero Pollution" as part of the EU Action Plan "Towards a Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil", a key deliverable of the European Green Deal.
Next to the update from the Action Group, this edition includes contributions from our member projects intelWATT, STOP-IT, B-WaterSmart and AquaSPICE.
On a personal note we want to thank Marco Ranieri for his invaluable contribution and commitment to the cluster and congratulate him in his new appointment as Communication and Project Officer for "Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence" actions under Horizon Europe at the European Research Agency (REA). Marco, we will miss you.
Have a great summer, The ICT4Water team
|
|
|
|
ICT4Water
ICT4Water -> Zero Pollution Action Plan - SWD Digital solutions for zero pollution
On 12 May 2021, the European Commission adopted the EU Action Plan: "Towards a Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil"- a key deliverable of the European Green Deal. The ICT4Water cluster, a hub of EU funded projects, provided a significant contribution to the Staff working document: “Digital solutions for Zero Pollution”, that is a part of the set of the documents accompanying the Zero pollution action plan. The achievements of the ICT4Water cluster including the three most recent publications of the cluster are referenced in the staff working document. Also happy to see that #ScoreWater, #Fiware4Water and #Integroil projects are explicitly mentioned as good examples of digital solutions in the water sector. All three projects are members of the cluster. The cluster is proud that it can contribute to a green and digital transition.
|
|
|
|
Action Group Business Models
Business models for digital water solutions
The
Business Model Action Group within the ICT4Water cluster aims at further developing digital water business models for different smart approaches (Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, Smart Industry). It intends to build knowledge on innovative data driven business models (BM) to create value within the water sector and including in a systematic way financial, environmental and social gains and indicators.
The group discusses about common terminology, drivers, KPIs, innovation strategies, potential barriers, improving common understanding of key factors in a data driven business model.
Outcome: together with the analysis of several projects belonging to the cluster a report on Business models for digital water solutions has been published on 2021.
The purpose of the report is to understand how business models can effectively support digital water solutions. For this, a methodology to identify the minimum characteristics and structural elements of financially and environmentally sustainable business models that digital water solutions must have and how to recognize them has been developed. The final goal of this methodology, designed to highlight the value of a digital water solution, is twofold: on one hand increase knowledge and help project members and any aspiring innovators when designing their business models; and on the other, assist EASME, and the policy DGs in navigating along digital water business models and assessing their potential.
Business models is also one of the four task forces created within the DigitalWater2020 Synergy Group (DW2020), which includes Digital-water.city, aqua3s, Fiware4Water, NAIADES and ScoreWater. The projects are approaching the last period of activities and business potential can now count on validated technical solutions and experimental results. The projects are developing a series of digital solutions using the large panel of available digital technologies: sensors, modelling, Augmented Reality, mobile app, Artificial Intelligence. These solutions are being currently demonstrated in >15 European cities and will be available on the market by the end of the projects in 2022-2023. To support this effort, DW2020 is elaborating a common catalogue of solutions to share knowledge and examples from the projects. Goal is to have a clear list of the outcomes of the projects for the water sector and to be able to filter them by type of digital solutions of role along the water cycle. This initiative should eventually facilitate the match making and promotion of the solutions with the market needs.
|
|
|
|
intelWATT
A business plan for fresh water in industry
Water scarcity is one major global challenge and, according to the United Nations, by 2050 9 billion people will need to relocate from their places due to risk of floods and droughts. In regions with a high cost of fresh water intake and discharge of waste water are both a large demand for feed an “easy” to reuse clean water from the waste water will be assessed. Simultaneously the ability to recover metals and to be reused back to the production will be a double benefit for the end clients since nowadays the metal depletion and it is increased market price defining the business case. The advantage of the membranes and ion exchange solutions proposed in intelWATT project is that it will help to convince wastewater customers to apply intelWATT’s system to achieve a ‘’waste to value’’ strategy instead of paying high costs losing valuable metals. The benefits of the intelWATT water technologies and their capacity to be interconnected with industrial activities will facilitate its market uptake.
Read the full article here >>
|
|
|
|
B-WaterSmart
Accelerating the transformation to water-smart economies and societies
The water sector in coastal areas is facing a couple of challenges such as water scarcity and increasing water demands due to climate change and economic and population growth. This can lead to overexploitation of resources, quality deterioration and regional imbalances in the availability of water resources. To tackle these challenges, the European research project “building a water-smart society and economy”, short B-WaterSmart, develops and demonstrates smart technologies and circular economy approaches.
“This project has a lighthouse character. We consider the water cycle to be a holistic system of nature, technology and society. In cooperation with various interest groups, innovative solutions are co-developed and tested at six sites, called Living Labs, spread across Europe. These are intended to support water companies and municipalities in making their water systems and services sustainable, water-smart and more resilient to climate change,” project coordinator David Schwesig explains.
|
|
|
|
Figure - B-WaterSmart main results
The
research therefore is based on specific problems in six European
coastal cities and regions that have great ambitions to tackle their
challenges and opportunities by implementing water-smart technology and
management solutions. Water companies from Alicante in Spain, Bodø in
Norway, Flanders in Belgium, Lisbon in Portugal, East Frisia in Germany
and Venice in Italy develop and demonstrate solutions as Living Labs,
together with research partners and local technology providers.
Find out more about the project here: https://b-watersmart.eu
|
|
|
|
AquaSPICE
Advancing the sustainability of Process Industries through digital and circular water use innovation with AquaSPICE
AquaSPICE is a Horizon 2020 SPIRE project, started in December 2020, aiming at materializing circular water use in the European Process Industries and fostering awareness in resource-efficiency. It delivers compact solutions for industrial applications, including water treatment and reuse technologies and closed-loop water recycling practices. The project also delivers an innovative cyber-physical-system (WaterCPS) including a system for real-time monitoring, assessment and optimisation of water use and reuse at different interconnected levels.
|
|
|
|
The innovations in AquaSPICE emanate from the requirements of six Case Studies, involving seven industrial actors (Dow, BASF, Solvay, ARETUSA, Agricola, JEMS and TUPRAS) in six EU countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia and Romania) and one associated country (Turkey).
AQUASPICE recently joined the ICT4WATER cluster. We plan to contribute to relevant activities of the Action Groups (AG). Due to the strong IT/IoT content of the project, we are mainly considering a particular contribution to the Smart Water AG and collaboration with the DW2020 synergy group.
|
|
|
|
The project follows a systemic approach in water management where optimal efficiency can be achieved through an adaptation of appropriate technologies and practices in different levels, from a single industrial process (unit operation), to an entire factory, to other collaborating industries (industrial symbiosis) or other sectors (e.g. domestic and/or agriculture).
|
|
|
|
Action Group Policy
Exeter scientist appointed as NERC Constructing a Digital Environment Senior Expert
Prof Albert Chen
at the Centre for Water Systems (CWS) has been appointed as a UK Senior Expert in the NERC Digital Environment Expert Network, as a part of NERC/UKRI Constructing a Digital Environment (CDE) Programme. The CDE Programme aims to develop thinking and practice around a ‘digitally enabled environment’, providing benefits for policy makers, businesses, communities and individuals.
Prof Chen is specialised in Water, Human and Environment studies. His research career started with computer modelling of urban floods and he is always enthusiastic in building digital solutions to improve the understanding and management of water environment. He has created a series of modelling tools to advance scientific knowledge on the interrelationships between different phenomena, services, and consequences related to water, human, and environment. The outputs have helped risk communications among stakeholders and citizens to reach consensus on flood mitigation measure and decision making.
“My vision is unleashing the power of hydroinformatics that enables efficient and effective interventions systematically strengthening the resilience of human and environment to the impacts of water-related hazards, for both the present and the future climate scenarios.”, Prof Chen says.
He is currently co-leading the Policy Action Group in the European Commission’s ICT4Water Cluster to review existing challenges and to identify the advantages and opportunities of integrated ICT applications within water sector. The outcomes will contribute to shaping policy recommendations at super-national, national, and local levels to facilitate the uptake of digital solutions.
|
|
|
|
STOP-IT
The STOP-IT platform
Secure your water infrastructures against cyber-physical attacks and threats with the STOP-IT platform, which supports strategic/tactical planning, real time operational decision making and post-action assessment for the key parts of the water infrastructure. The platform is the main outcome of the European research project STOP-IT, which focuses on the strategic, tactical and operational protection of critical water infrastructures against physical and cyber threats. It is scalable (scaling from small utilities to large ones), adaptable (including various modules addressing different needs, with expandability for future modules) and flexible (the water utility managers can decide how to use it and it will be usable by experts, novices, and even non-technical staff).
|
|
|
|
The
main added value of the platform is that all the modules and over 30
tools are integrated, connected to each other and interoperable,
therefore ensuring the protection against combined cyber-physical
threats and also allowing the analysis of cascading effects of physical
and cyber events. The platform was validated in an operational
environment and all solutions were demonstrated in real environments.
Read more about the platform on our website under: https://stop-it-project.eu/res...
Watch here our Youtube-Video about the platform.
|
|
|
|
Received this newsletter from a partner or friend and want to receive our quarterly newsletter automatically? Subscribe now and click the button below!
|
|
|
|
The projects in the ICT4Water cluster received funding from the European Union’s LIFE or Horizon2020 research and innovation programme.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|