TitleSmart tools for sustainable urban water management
Population growth, lifestyle changes, ageing infrastructure and increasingly complex systems are challenges facing urban water managers. This is acerbated by climate change, which can lead to water scarcity or reduced quality, alongside more extreme weather, with increased storm water or heat islands. To respond, operators need smarter digital systems with better data, while meeting expectations of accountability and improved public engagement. “Policies like the EU Water Framework Directive are impelling authorities to implement water management plans; many reliant on water accounting practices based on real-time monitoring, which is often lacking,” says Chrysi Laspidou, project coordinator of Water4Cities. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions supported Water4Cities project has contributed a methodology for storm water and water supply system management, based on beyond state-of-the-art monitoring tools and augmented by visualisation of critical components and key performance indicators (KPIs). “By optimising the network’s performance with important operational data, our prototypes deliver value to end users, while promoting sustainable urban water management,” summarises Laspidou from the University of Thessaly, the project host.
The visualisation and data management prototypes
The heart of the Water4Cities solution is a platform for sensor data collection, algorithm-led analysis and end-user visualisation. “The system is plug-and-play and compatible with other water billing, meteorological and pressure and flow data systems,” explains Laspidou. Water4Cities developed two prototype pilots: one for storm water management in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the other for urban water supply management in Skiathos, Greece. In Ljubljana, the decision support software visualised locations and their characteristics based on open data, such as data from rain measuring stations. Algorithmic processing of this data and/or historical data, can then generate models forecasting likely rain volume or groundwater levels, in different scenarios. The system can even compensate for missing sensor data. For example, an algorithm infers groundwater levels – a difficult variable to measure – from other widely available data, such as precipitation. “We received positive feedback from the assessment conducted by LUZ, a Slovenian urban planning company, which included interviews with 10 academic and industry representatives,” says Laspidou. The Skiathos prototype, Polis Wizz, was co-designed by the University of Thessaly and end users, including the water utility company DEYASK (website in Greek). Data was collected from pre-existing sensors, alongside new ones introduced by the project, recording pressure and flow rate, consumption at different households, and groundwater conductivity, depth and temperature. The data was combined with historical water consumption, infrastructure and socio-economic data. Algorithms and visualisation features then provide system-wide KPIs, such as costs, losses, energy consumption and leakages; in detail as precise as neighbourhood level and as frequently as hourly. “A well-maintained network lasts longer and saves money, with foreseen problems quickly dealt with. The consumer gains from continuous water quality measurement, and reduced overpumping and groundwater over-exploitation saves energy, benefiting the environment,” explains Laspidou. The platform’s performance was evaluated during the 2021 International Conference on Environmental Management, Engineering, Planning and Economics by expert and non-expert users, representing the public. “It was considered well-designed, with positive feedback for usability and user experience. However, we also took on board recommendations for improvements,” adds Laspidou.
Systems thinking
To facilitate knowledge transfer, Water4Cities instituted secondments between partners, while also publishing training content. The project’s assets will be available to researchers in follow-up projects NAIADES and Circular City. Additionally, the Polis Wizz platform has been highlighted as a potential candidate for commercialisation, with dialogues under way between academia and industry. The University of Thessaly is eager to adopt Polis Wizz for research into how best to navigate the synergies and trade-offs that exist within interlinked urban subsystems.
Keywords
Water4Cities, water accounting, water quality, energy, infrastructure, algorithm, water scarcity, consumer, groundwater, flow rate, climate change, weather
