HI and SWM - Current State and Opportunities for the BTO Utilities - Executive Summary - New vision provides framework to shape further development of hydroinformatics and smart water management

With the advancing digitisation and interconnectedness of society at all levels, the handling of increasing quantities of data and the valorisation of information is becoming more and more important. Hydroinformatics and smart water management can contribute to making the water sector more future-proof. A vision has been developed of the digital water sector of the future, founded on an analysis of the current state-of-play and on technological trends. This vision identifies opportunities and risks, and is intended as a framework for further thinking and discussion, and to help define the agenda for research, development and implementation.
Interest: addressing future challenges With the advancing digitisation and interconnectedness of society at all levels, the handling of data and the valorisation of information is becoming increasingly important. It is expected that in the water sector, as in other industrial sectors, the use of data and the further digitisation will help the sector become future-proof and confront challenges, such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation and migration, chemicals of emerging concern in water, and ageing infrastructure. The handling of data and the valorisation of the information extracted, digital optimisation and control of systems, model-based decision-making and scenario generation have already become indispensable in the water sector. The required information science, data science and digital technology are relatively recent additions to water sector operational management. Together, they constitute the new fields of hydroinformatics (HI) and smart water management (SWM): truly interdisciplinary fields, which integrate knowledge and methods from every water-related domain where data are collected and processed. The reliance of the Dutch and Flemish water utilities on HI and SWM is growing rapidly, while the fields themselves are still developing. To properly shape this development, a vision is needed to provide a framework for further collaborative thinking and discussion, and to help define the agenda for research, development and implementation.
Approach: current state in the water sector, technology and trends collected as basis for vision in 2030 For the development of this vision, the researchers
combined their knowledge of HI and SWM with an overview of technological trends, and of questions and issues arising in the water sector. They sketched the current state-of-play in the fields of HI and SWM at KWR, in the Netherlands generally, and worldwide. On this basis, they formulated a vision of the role of HI and SWM in the water sector, particularly the Dutch and Flemish water sector, over the medium term (2030).
Report: This research is described in the report Hydroinformatics and Smart Water Management – Current State and Opportunities for the BTO Utilities (BTO 2019.045).