Digitalisation in the European water sector

About

Around 120 participants attended the webinar on Digitalisation in the European water sector - policy frameworks and smart tools, organised in cooperation with DG REGIO and DG ENVIRONMENT on 28 October 2021.

Target audience

 Water utilities and their associations, as well as Managing Authorities and relevant line Ministries were the main audience of this training.

Objectives

The purpose of this webinar was to increase participants’ awareness of the benefits and challenges of current smart water technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, big data management, Internet of Things, smart non-revenue water reduction, smart operation of water networks and wastewater networks and smart asset management. 

Furthermore, they webinar aimed at making participants aware of key steps and main considerations in investments in smart water tools – so they can better prepare, implement, and ensure secured operations and maintenance activities.

Lastly, the webinar aimed at providing insights to better prepare future investment activities to reduce the use of resources and GHG emission, with possible financing by EU funds for 2021-27.

This webinar was jointly organised with DG REGIO and DG Environment, who presented the relation between the European policy framework and the digitalisation of the water sector. Speakers from JASPERS and several European water utilities talked about their concrete experiences, with a specific focus on the benefits and the challenges of planning and implementing smart water tools.