Against the backdrop of climate change, demographic development and ageing infrastructures, European cities must gradually change the management of their water systems. The digital-water.city (DWC) innovation project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research, is helping to improve water management in five major European cities – Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Sofia – through the intelligent use of data and digital technologies.

Under the leadership of KWB, 24 partners from 10 European countries and Israel will develop new solutions for tomorrow’s requirements in the water sector. The project has been running for over a year and a lot has been achieved since then. The first monitoring programmes were started last year, comprising the control of bathing water quality in Paris, the monitoring of combined sewer overflows in Berlin and Sofia, the quality measurement of the treated wastewater for water reuse in Milan, flow measurements in the sewer network in Copenhagen and much else.

Of course, the DWC project too, is affected by the COVID-19 crisis, since there were lockdowns in many EU countries, and the water utilities had to centre on their core activities. As the project focuses on digitisation, we do not rely on sensors and “physical” infrastructure only. Most of our solutions are based on data and digital components such as machine learning, virtual reality, dashboards or cloud platforms. We are pleased to see how digital communication channels make our daily work easier and enable us to remain innovative and networked even in difficult times like this.

You can find the progress reports on the 15 digital solutions of the DWC project on our DWC Website.