DWC – Digital Water.City – Leading urban water management to its digital future (H2020)  2020)

General concept

DWC creates new linkages between the digital and the physical world by developing, assessing and bringing to the market a panel of 18 advanced tailor-made data and digital technologies for integrated water management. DWC digital solutions are being deployed in five major European urban and peri-urban areas, Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen, Paris and Sofia, representing about 30 million inhabitants, i.e. 6% of Europe’s population, facing common issues concerning water and wastewater management and digitization, and linked to important events such as the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. DWC partners consider that the large scale assessment and communication of the benefits provided by the digital solutions in five major cities will serve as lighthouse, raising the awareness of other European cities, including smaller urban areas, and opening new market opportunities for DWC partners and European providers of digital solutions. DWC takes the challenge of developing a large number of solutions (18 DS, TRL 3-7 toward TRL 7-9) that address a wide panel of digital techniques for the all water value chain instead of focusing only on few isolated solutions. DWC considers that this approach is essential to unleash the full potential obtained through the interactions of single digital technologies such as real-time monitoring data empowered by artificial intelligence and mobile visualization tools. DWC solutions have been selected based on their level of maturity, on their market potential and on their high relevance to address current and future water-related issues, namely the protection of human health, the technical, environmental and economic performance and return on investment of water infrastructures as well as the public and end-user awareness on water management.

The role of UNIVPM in DWC

The role of UNIVPM DWC is related to focusing on improved decision making for human health protection. Innovative sensors for measurement of water quality health-risk-related parameters is being integrated in existing infrastructures. The UNIVPM activity allows the set-up of monitoring network for safe water reuse, searching robust correlations between online and lab data to allow real-time decision making based on process-oriented monitoring. UNIVPM also contributes to the development of the digital structure and operation of an Early Warning System for improved decision making for water reuse, integrated in a water reuse risk management approach, in line with the WHO and EU guidelines. UNIVPM leads on wastewater treatment sustainability in local stakeholder training and engagement and will deliver the first versions of the mobile-friendly websites for visualization of long-term conclusive information to the end-users. Moreover, UNIVPM contributes to the development of a match-making tool between water supply and demand, remote detection of water stress for real-time monitoring of soil-plant-atmosphere system. UNIVPM will develop a Demo of Web-based serious game for the water reuse – carbon – energy – food – climatic nexus, to raise awareness and engage public to overcome social and economic barriers to water reuse. UNIVPM supports intra-project CoP, communication activities, scientific coordination of project and quality and risk management. 

Expected impacts

DWC innovations and solutions will bring interoperability of decision support systems through the identification and use of ICT/water vocabularies and ontologies in view of developing or improving ICT/water standards; improved decision making on water management, related risks and resource efficiency through increased real-time accuracy of knowledge; maximising return on investments through reduced operational costs for water utilities, including reduced costs for water monitoring, improved performance of water infrastructures, and enhanced access to and interoperability of data; enhanced public awareness on water consumption and usage savings; market development of integrated and cyber-resilient ICT solutions and systems for smart water management; reduction in the environmental footprint of the main water-dependant activities and improve their resilience to climate changes and other environmental changes.