Global mean sea-level rise (SLR) has accelerated since 1900 from less than 2 mm yr−1 during most of the century to more than 3 mm yr−1 since 1993. Decision-makers in coastal countries, however, require information on SLR at the regional scale, where detection of an acceleration in SLR is difficult, because the long-term sea-level signal is obscured by large inter-annual variations with multi-year trends that are easily one order of magnitude larger than global mean values. Here, we developed a time series approach to determine whether regional SLR is accelerating based on tide gauge data. We applied the approach to eight 100-year records in the southern North Sea and detected, for the first time, a common breakpoint in the early 1990s. The mean SLR rate at the eight stations increases from 1.7 ± 0.3 mm yr−1 before the breakpoint to 2.7 ± 0.4 mm yr−1 after the breakpoint (95% confidence interval), which is unprecedented in the regional instrumental record. These findings are robust provided that the record starts before 1970 and ends after 2015. Our method may be applied to any coastal region with tidal records spanning at least 40 years, which means that vulnerable coastal communities still have time to accumulate the required time series as a basis for adaptation decisions in the second half of this century.

Water utilities worldwide are under constant stress to reduce water loss due to urbanization, population growth, and climate change. Globally, Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) lose about 30% of the treated water on an average during supply. In addition to the amount of water lost, leaky WDNs consume additional energy and increase the risk of contamination. Deteriorating pipes and pipe network elements such as valves and joints, as well as improper pressure management are the main contributing factors for water loss in WDNs. Due to the increasing concern about water loss, leakage detection and localization have been widely researched in recent decades, both in continuously pumped and intermittently pumped systems.The techniques used for leakage detection and repair range from conventional methods with direct inspection on-site to model-based optimization methods. In the present era of low-cost sensors and the availability of high computing power, the transformation of WDNs into smart water systems is higher than ever. This has led to the research and development of data-driven and hybrid methods for solving leakage detection and localization methods. Irrespective of the class of methods used, their ultimate goal can be distilled primarily into two questions - a) How quickly and reliably can the presence of leak(s) be detected, and b) How accurate and precise can the location and size of the leak(s) be estimated?Answers to these questions include uncertainties inherent to the methods and models used, their underlying assumptions and necessary abstractions. Although much research has been done for many years to reduce uncertainties in leakage detection and localization, a comprehensive study using a consistent terminology of their types, sources, and effects on the outcome are missing. The main contribution of this work is to discuss (i) why there are uncertainties in the formulation of leakage detection and localization problem, (ii) identify the sources and types of uncertainties for different classes of modeling approaches (i.e., data-driven vs. model-based), and (iii) provide a brief review of their influence concerning error bounds from existing literature.

ULTIMATE aims to showcase circular economy solutions at nine case studies distributed across Europe and Israel for the treatment of industrial wastewater in order to recover water, material and energy. In this frame, 15 laboratory and preparatory experiments and investigations of existing systems are conducted to test the ULTIMATE approaches and based on them, 21 pilot plants are developed and will be demonstrated at the case studies.

Deliverable D1.2 is a demonstrator type deliverable and shows, that the ULTIMATE pilot plants are operational. To document the status for each case study, a presentation containing pictures and/or videos of the operational pilot plant is accessible on the ULTIMATE webpage (https://ultimatewater.eu/demonstration-cases/). This document accompanies the presentations which are meant to be the main evidence for D1.2 and shows the progress until M24.