Periodic Reporting for period 3 - B-WaterSmart (Accelerating Water Smartness in Coastal Europe)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-08-31
Coastal areas are at the forefront of climate change adaptation efforts, undergoing rapid development with growing and conflicting demands on the natural resources, in particular water. But rapid development may also offer windows of opportunities for significant systemic changes. This is where B-WaterSmart aimed to make an important contribution to the urgent societal need to become more water-smart.
Bringing together six cities and regions as living labs with high ambitions to address water-related challenges and opportunities – Alicante (ES), Bodø (NO), Flanders (BE), Lisbon (PT), East Frisia (DE), Venice (IT) – B-WaterSmart successfully demonstrated how to develop sustainable pathways for a water-smart future. The case studies were selected for complementarity of scale, users, sectors and challenges, and for opportunities of mutual learning, replication & upscaling through a network of followers already mobilized.
In each of the living labs, promising technologies and digital tools were developed and tested. Technology and tools implementation was supported by a participatory approach for co-creation & implementation of solutions through local Communities of Practice and a joint innovation alliance of problem owners, as well as the development of recommendations for suitable governance models, regulation & policy instruments in the fields of energy recovery from wastewater, water reuse, nutrient recovery and the transition to circular water systems.
Following this systemic approach, B-WaterSmart provided successful examples of local and regional pathways towards a water-smart society, showcased combinations of digital and technical solutions, and methodological approaches to assess water-smartness, created new business models for circular water solutions, and increased stakeholder awareness and acceptance that can be replicated in other areas.
Bringing together six cities and regions as living labs with high ambitions to address water-related challenges and opportunities – Alicante (ES), Bodø (NO), Flanders (BE), Lisbon (PT), East Frisia (DE), Venice (IT) – B-WaterSmart successfully demonstrated how to develop sustainable pathways for a water-smart future. The case studies were selected for complementarity of scale, users, sectors and challenges, and for opportunities of mutual learning, replication & upscaling through a network of followers already mobilized.
In each of the living labs, promising technologies and digital tools were developed and tested. Technology and tools implementation was supported by a participatory approach for co-creation & implementation of solutions through local Communities of Practice and a joint innovation alliance of problem owners, as well as the development of recommendations for suitable governance models, regulation & policy instruments in the fields of energy recovery from wastewater, water reuse, nutrient recovery and the transition to circular water systems.
Following this systemic approach, B-WaterSmart provided successful examples of local and regional pathways towards a water-smart society, showcased combinations of digital and technical solutions, and methodological approaches to assess water-smartness, created new business models for circular water solutions, and increased stakeholder awareness and acceptance that can be replicated in other areas.
But what is exactly is “what-smartness”? In order to answer that question B-WaterSmart developed a widely spread and accepted definition of water-smartness. This definition led to the development of a novel framework to assess gains in water-smartness and sustainability at different scales. The framework was transformed into an open access dashboard application in order to facilitate its application in other regions and applied in the six B-WaterSmart living labs.
Based on the assessment framework, each of the living labs developed a strategic agenda for a water-smart future in a co-creation process through local Communities of Practice. Each strategic agenda presents a future vision of the living lab that is shared by the stakeholders that were part of the development process. Through the innovative format of the Innovation Alliance the discussion between the living labs was stimulated. Lessons learned from this collaborative process were summarized as well to assist in future applications in a different setting.
B-WaterSmart developed and tested 14 different technologies for reuse of water and wastewater, energy and materials recovery from water and wastewater, and smart management of water systems and infrastructure and investigated the potential of energy production from small wastewater treatment plants. In addition, 18 digital applications were developed and applied in at least one of the living labs. For each of the technological and digital solutions, a specific exploitation strategy was defined that will lead to an open access or commercial exploitation pathway. Furthermore, it is presented in the Water Europe Marketplace and supported by different training materials.
Based on this suite of possible technological and digital solutions, each living lab was able to identify and assess new circularity opportunities. Across the different living labs, general recommendations for suitable new business models and guidelines on financing CE solutions, increasing social acceptance and closing governance gaps regarding the implementation of B-WaterSmart solutions were formulated. The project also increased the public acceptance of circular water solutions itself, through its efforts for citizen engagement and interaction with the broader public., e.g. by performing local events at each of the living labs.
Based on the assessment framework, each of the living labs developed a strategic agenda for a water-smart future in a co-creation process through local Communities of Practice. Each strategic agenda presents a future vision of the living lab that is shared by the stakeholders that were part of the development process. Through the innovative format of the Innovation Alliance the discussion between the living labs was stimulated. Lessons learned from this collaborative process were summarized as well to assist in future applications in a different setting.
B-WaterSmart developed and tested 14 different technologies for reuse of water and wastewater, energy and materials recovery from water and wastewater, and smart management of water systems and infrastructure and investigated the potential of energy production from small wastewater treatment plants. In addition, 18 digital applications were developed and applied in at least one of the living labs. For each of the technological and digital solutions, a specific exploitation strategy was defined that will lead to an open access or commercial exploitation pathway. Furthermore, it is presented in the Water Europe Marketplace and supported by different training materials.
Based on this suite of possible technological and digital solutions, each living lab was able to identify and assess new circularity opportunities. Across the different living labs, general recommendations for suitable new business models and guidelines on financing CE solutions, increasing social acceptance and closing governance gaps regarding the implementation of B-WaterSmart solutions were formulated. The project also increased the public acceptance of circular water solutions itself, through its efforts for citizen engagement and interaction with the broader public., e.g. by performing local events at each of the living labs.
Understanding and assessing the value of water and incorporating it into decision-making are fundamental to achieving sustainable and equitable water resources management and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this direction, B-WaterSmart has contributed to the development and implementation of a strategic methodological framework to organize, drive, and support key activities to achieve systemic innovation in full-scale water-smart systems, including stakeholder networking and dialogue, joint definition of concerns, issues, and ambitions, identification and overcoming of technical, social, and governance barriers, consensual cross-sectoral solutions, and development and long-term implementation of water-smartness strategies.
B-WaterSmart contributed to progress beyond state-of-the art with the design, planning, construction, and customization of 14 innovative technologies and the development of 18 smart solutions that complement each other and support systemic innovation. Important added value was not only delivering a high number of individual tools, but B-WaterSmart also focused on developing, proposing and applying combination of tools that can be considered as a suite that can support different contents and scales and can be used within different workflows starting from the conceptualization phase, the design phase, testing, what if scenarios exploration, implementation, monitoring and so on. In order to make the process understandable and accessible to users beyond the project, two complementary toolkits were created.
B-WaterSmart supported the implementation and improvement of EU policies with the development of a representative and homogenized list of circular economy indicators, adapted to a water-smart society embracing the water-energy-resources-waste nexus and a step-by-step methodology for circularity assessment. Moreover, synergies relating to a water-smart society with the EU taxonomy under development have been identified. This will enhance access to new innovation projects and financing opportunities.
A new conceptual model to analyze the perceptions and behaviors of stakeholders and citizens in relation to water-smart solutions, developed by the project, adopts an interdisciplinary approach by combining the perspectives of sociology, human geography and social psychology.
All in all, B-WaterSmart outputs aim at supporting the design and implementation of EU policy relevant for water-smartness, including the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change (2013) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (2020). Furthermore, in four policy briefs, the project provides recommendations on how to better implement recent EU policies such as the EU Regulation for Water Reuse (in force since 2023) and the EU Urban Revised Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), based on the pilots of the B-WaterSmart living labs.
In this direction, B-WaterSmart has contributed to the development and implementation of a strategic methodological framework to organize, drive, and support key activities to achieve systemic innovation in full-scale water-smart systems, including stakeholder networking and dialogue, joint definition of concerns, issues, and ambitions, identification and overcoming of technical, social, and governance barriers, consensual cross-sectoral solutions, and development and long-term implementation of water-smartness strategies.
B-WaterSmart contributed to progress beyond state-of-the art with the design, planning, construction, and customization of 14 innovative technologies and the development of 18 smart solutions that complement each other and support systemic innovation. Important added value was not only delivering a high number of individual tools, but B-WaterSmart also focused on developing, proposing and applying combination of tools that can be considered as a suite that can support different contents and scales and can be used within different workflows starting from the conceptualization phase, the design phase, testing, what if scenarios exploration, implementation, monitoring and so on. In order to make the process understandable and accessible to users beyond the project, two complementary toolkits were created.
B-WaterSmart supported the implementation and improvement of EU policies with the development of a representative and homogenized list of circular economy indicators, adapted to a water-smart society embracing the water-energy-resources-waste nexus and a step-by-step methodology for circularity assessment. Moreover, synergies relating to a water-smart society with the EU taxonomy under development have been identified. This will enhance access to new innovation projects and financing opportunities.
A new conceptual model to analyze the perceptions and behaviors of stakeholders and citizens in relation to water-smart solutions, developed by the project, adopts an interdisciplinary approach by combining the perspectives of sociology, human geography and social psychology.
All in all, B-WaterSmart outputs aim at supporting the design and implementation of EU policy relevant for water-smartness, including the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change (2013) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (2020). Furthermore, in four policy briefs, the project provides recommendations on how to better implement recent EU policies such as the EU Regulation for Water Reuse (in force since 2023) and the EU Urban Revised Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), based on the pilots of the B-WaterSmart living labs.