The objective of the report is to identify enabling and hindering factors for the uptake of ICT solutions to water governance, through the analysis of the process of development and the introduction of three digital applications in three different contexts of water management.
This final deliverable builds on a preliminary (deliverable 3.4) for WP3 which was submitted in November 2020. The report applies the structure proposed in the Guiding Protocol (Deliverable 3.1).

This policy brief provides an overview of current gaps in the EU legislative framework that hinder the realization of the benefits of digitalisation in the water sector and offers concrete recommendations on how to overcome them. It builds on the findings of five Horizon 2020 projects that address different aspects of digitalisation in the water sector and jointly form the DigitalWater2020 (DW2020) synergy group: digital-water.city, ScoreWater, Fiware4Water, NAIADES and aqua3s. All five projects are the active members of the ICT4Water cluster. This policy brief highlights that digital solutions and innovations are needed to ensure sustainable and cost-efficient water management that can tackle challenges such as climate change, pollution and depletion of water resources and cyber threats. Currently, digital solutions are not sufficiently integrated into EU water policies. EU policies are missing a coherent terminology and clear definitions of digitalisation in the water sector. At the same time, they have different targets and different target audiences. As a result, users of water services and even providers of digital services in the water sector often either do not know or do not understand the relevant water policies. Another hindering factor for the full use of the potential of digitalisation in the water sector is the lack of technology guidance and standards for monitoring. Currently, EU and municipal policy makers must make fundamental decisions on future investments in the water sector. These decisions should be guided by EU policies that enable the Twin Transition (digital and green transition) in the EU water sector, making the EU a sustainable and climate-proof industry leader. As Next Generation Internet Technology (NGI) becomes more affordable (e.g. IoT, Blockchain, augmented reality, etc), different use cases in the water sector need to be better understood and adopted. EU policies should better harness the potential of digital solutions. Common shortcomings are related to digital infrastructure and security, integration, standardisation, data sharing, and public involvement. Policy makers must recognise the importance of digitalising the water sector to dramatically advance the management of water. New digital solutions may improve the transparency and efficiency of decision-making within Integrated Water Resources Management. Digital data can make policies more tangible, understandable, and widely accepted.

In recent decades, emerging contaminants (ECs) have surfaced as one of the key environmental problems threatening ecosystems and public health. Most emerging contaminants are present in low concentrations, and therefore often remain undetected and are also referred to as ‘micropollutants’. Despite this, many ECs raise considerable concerns regarding their impacts on human and environmental health. DEMEAU (Demonstration of promising technologies to address emerging contaminants in water and wastewater), a European Seventh Framework Programme (EU-FP7, 2013-2015) project, aimed to tackle ECs in drinking and wastewater by advancing the uptake of knowledge, prototypes, practices and removal technologies. The project followed a solutions-oriented approach using applied research and demonstration sites, and explored four promising technologies for EC removal and/or degradation: Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR), Hybrid Ceramic Membrane Filtration (HCMF), Automatic Neural Net Control Systems (ANCS) and Advanced Oxidation Techniques (AOT). Furthermore, Bioassays (BA) were investigated as an effect-based monitoring tool. This article shares new findings for each approach and their potential for widespread integration in the drinking- and wastewater sector. Research results from DEMEAU demonstration sites show that opportunities for synergies among these developments offer the most promising and effective methods for tackling ECs in the water sector.