Shaping Our Digital Water Future: Insights from IWA Day 3

Digital Water is right up my alley, so I’ll focus on this for the next few lines. This area of expertise is gaining momentum at the IWA WWCE, with a dedicated corner in the Exhibition hall, five workshops, and eight technical sessions. This morning, I co-chaired a session with Koen Zuurbier (PWN) titled ‘From Data to Decision Making, and Back’. We had a fantastic panel of guests: Pilar Conejos from Idrica in Spain (technology provider), Alex van der Helm from Waternet in the Netherlands (water utility), Harsha Ratnaweera, Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and IWA fellow, and our own Dragan Savic.

In this session, we discussed how data and AI can foster a resilient water sector. To guide the discussion, we presented our panel and the audience with three statements:

1. We have the data we need for informed decision-making in the water sector.
2. There is a data-rich/information-poor paradox in the water industry.
3. AI can support the water sector in addressing challenges like climate change, urbanization, population growth, and overall future uncertainty.

These statements quickly sparked an open discussion between the panel and a very engaged audience (full room!), who posed several questions and shared their own ideas and reflections.

We took a closer look at how the water sector is handling data and using it to strengthen collaboration and support decision-making for complex water problems. We learned that while we seem to have enough data available, it often lacks the quality needed to generate the necessary knowledge. This means the sector should improve data collection, make better use of data (to assess quality as well), integrate data (including external data), and move from data silos to more accessible data. Good practices include considering data ownership and appointing data stewards.

We discussed the latest advancements in physics-informed AI and Generative AI and how these can help transform data into actionable information. However, we also touched upon the associated risks of AI, the responsible use of AI, and the environmental impact of AI itself. Waternet provided excellent examples of how AI is helping them reduce Nitrous Oxide (a greenhouse gas) to meet their climate goals by 2035. Combining physical models with data-driven models was highlighted as a key aspect of making AI valuable for tackling water issues in the coming years. A key takeaway was that the human in the loop is crucial in the digital transformation and use of AI in the water sector – let’s consider a shift from Artificial Intelligence to Augmented Intelligence.

The audience continued to question and reflect on these topics, ending with a plea for more governance in the digital transformation of the sector.

In the afternoon, Dragan and I attended a session about the challenges and opportunities of digitalization in the water sector. Dragan shared a story about the tortoise and the hare, concluding that the Digital Water Transformation is steady and not too slow, that going faster might be risky, and that perseverance wins in the end. We also heard about the struggles and opportunities from different countries around the world.

I shared the status, benefits, opportunities, and challenges of digital water in the Netherlands, highlighting our advantageous position (access to data, calibrated and high-quality models, potential to invest). As for the challenges, I believe the technology push often leads to short-sighted investments in digital tools – becoming digital should not be a goal in itself, but a means to support the water sector in becoming more resilient to present and future water challenges. In this context, it’s important to stop and reflect on the necessary level of digitalization before making investments. Another challenge is the workforce: the silver tsunami, i.e., the wave of retiring experienced professionals, leads to a loss of knowledge and experience that we need to find ways to retain, but can be achieved with the help of digital tools. At the same time, it seems very difficult to attract the new generation to the water sector. This generation, however, is key in the digital transformation: they are data-minded, have programming skills, and are interested and knowledgeable in AI. Lastly, I argue we need to shift from deterministic to probabilistic (or even possibilistic) thinking. This has been one of the research points in the Hydroinformatics team for some years.

All in all, I look back happily at a successful day. The motto of this year’s IWA WWCE is ‘Shaping Our Water Future’, and today we shaped a bit more of our digital water future.