Digital Water

Get Involved

Towards the Next Generation of Water Systems

The IWA Digital Water Programme will help facilitate the journey of the water industry towards digital uptake and integration into water services. The programme will be a gateway for water utilities to access knowledge on the application of digital approaches to improve capacity and performance.

The programme will serve water utilities in several ways depending on their digital maturity:

– As a starting point to initiate the dialogue on digital water

– As a mechanism to learn new ideas to build on their own experiences in applying digital solutions, and

– As a platform to share experiences on their digital transformation.

Why Digital Water?

The great water challenges of our time, namely climate change, population growth and increasing urbanization, and ageing and overly stressed infrastructure, inflict significant pressure on water networks. The water industry, and in particular water utilities, needs to adapt to meet the emerging demands of a dynamic, highly deregulated and competitive environment within the context of a changing climate. In such an environment, water utilities need to continue to deliver essential services including safe and secure drinking water, stormwater management and wastewater management.

Addressing these ongoing and growing challenges requires a transformation to optimize its processes and operational efficiency. In fact, these challenges and their increasing complexity necessitate a paradigm shift to the next generation of water systems beyond traditional water and sewerage infrastructure.  The development of new systems is against the background of cyber-physical systems, digitalization and big data where software, sensors, processors, communication and control technologies are increasingly integrated, to enable informed decisions in an increasingly changing, complex and uncertain world.

A paradigm shift for the water industry

The paradigm shift for the water industry is to move towards (i) offering new services ranging from resource recovery to newer digital approaches as a consequence of integrating organizational siloes to offer a dynamic and sustainable real-time decision-making; (ii) considering a systems approach which recognizes the interconnectedness of water across sectors and how decision-making can improve benefit sharing and (iii) decentralisation or distributed systems to maximize resource recovery, deal with rapid growing cities, and dampen the propagation of failures.

To support these shifts in how water services are operated, water utilities will be expected to invest in appropriate measures, which include the digitalization of the way water is managed, distributed and regulated.

IWA Digital Water Programme

The Digital Water Programme aims to act as a catalyst for innovation, knowledge and best practices around digitalization for the water industry, provide a platform to share experiences and promote leadership in transitioning to digital water solutions, and consolidate lessons to guide the natural evolution from the ‘business as usual’ to achieving a digital water utility.

The Programme is driven by end users (e.g. utilities, regulators) as well as solution providers (e.g. technology companies, software companies, researchers, academia) at the forefront of emerging technologies to solve urgent and costly operational problems to deliver water services. A Steering Committee, chaired by Oliver Grievson, guides the Programme in collaboration with IWA Secretariat.

 

Vision

The uptake and integration of digital water will shape resilient water utilities of the future that manage water wisely, sustainably and equitably.

 

Mission

The Digital Water Programme will provide a platform for water utilities to explore and share experiences on their digital water journey. The Programme will provide roadmaps and guidance that will help water utilities in making the transition to the next generation of smart water systems and fulfil the need for improved resiliency to secure and sustainably manage water resources now and in the future.

 

Programme outputs

The Digital Water Programme produces several outputs, including a white paper series, blogs, podcasts, etc. To learn more about how to engage with the Programme, visit here

 

Related IWA Specialist Groups

Basins and Water Resources
  • Groundwater Management
  • Lake and Reservoir Management
  • Sustainability in the Water Sector
  • Watershed and River Basin Management
Drinking Water Systems
  • Design, Operation and Maintenance of Drinking Water Treatment Plants
  • Water Safety Planning
Information and Communications Technology
  • Hydroinformatics (Joint IWA/IAHR/IAHS)
  • Instrumentation, Control and Automation
  • Modelling and Integrated Assessment

 

Urban Water Management
  • Efficient Urban Water Management
  • Water Security and Safety Management
Wastewater Systems
  • Design, Operation and Costs of Large Wastewater Treatment Plants
  • Small Water and Wastewater Systems
Water Governance, Regulation and Utility Management
  • Benchmarking and Performance Assessment
  • Environmental Engineering Education
  • Statistics and Economics
  • Strategic Asset Management

Stay informed, subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required
IWA Newsletters
Programmes and Communities
Samuela Guida
Strategic Programmes and Engagement Manager - Strategic Programmes and Engagement samuela.guida [a] iwahq.org

Initiatives

See initiatives related to this programme

‘Earth observation for water management̵...

The Earth Observation for water management group, launched as Community of Practice (CoP), brings together experts from ...

Digital Transformation Hub (DTHub)

The main aim of the DTHub is to provide digital water professionals with an up-to-date overview platform sharing pilot e...

Digital Water White Papers Series

The IWA Digital Water Programme has initiated a series of White Papers to help utilities, water professionals and all th...

PrimeWater

IWA is a key partner in PrimeWater (Delivering Advanced Predictive Tools from Medium to Seasonal Range for Water Depende...

Industry leaders chart the transformation journey

The Digital Water Report kicks-off the knowledge sharing and generation in the IWA Digital Water Programme. The Prog...

Engage with the Digital Water Programme

The Digital Water Programme helps facilitate the journey of the water industry towards digital uptake and integration in...

Water Innovation through Dissemination Exploitatio...

Wise Water Cities rely on innovative strategies and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) solutions. The visi...

Insights

Latest on Digital Water

November 8, 2023
The IWA Digital Water Summit 2023, which takes place 14 to 16 November in Bilbao, Spain, is your exclusive gateway to the future of water management. This trans...
November 3, 2023
Water utilities are at the forefront of safeguarding public health, safety, and the environment, and play a critical role in building community resilience. Many...
September 18, 2023
Water utilities are at the forefront of safeguarding public health, safety, and the environment, and play a critical role in building community resilience. Many...
June 28, 2023
Building on the success of last year, the IWA Digital Water Summit returns to Bilbao, Spain on 14-16 November 2023. The leaders of the digital transformation in...
May 3, 2023
Water utilities are at the forefront of safeguarding public health, safety, and the environment, and play a critical role in building community resilience. Many...
February 17, 2023
Young Water Professionals from around the world joined forces to organise a full-day workshop at the recent IWA Water Resource Recovery Modelling Seminar (WRRMO...
November 9, 2022
Chema Nebot, Business Development Director at Idrica, an international water technology company specialising in smart solutions and services for the industry, c...
October 12, 2022
The application of Digital Twins in the global water industry is a hot topic and I’m encouraged that the benefits of these innovative tools are being more wid...

Webinars, Podcasts and Events

DigitalisationTechnology
October 12, 2023
In this episode, we interview Sheilla de Carvalho, Managing Director at the Hydroinformatics Institute in Singapore. Sheilla joined the Steering Committee in 20...