UrbaQuantum aims to achieve a system-wide paradigm shift that is required towards the formation of a synergic urban-water relationship via Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM). UrbaQuantum will provide a framework for interventions over the entire water cycle which simultaneously advance water resources security, enhance the quality of life, optimise economic growth, maintain ecological balance and improve water systems’ resilience to climate change. Effective implementation of IUWM though must overcome some important challenges before these benefits can be realized. 

Water scarcity and pollution are serious problems in many countries, including Romania, Greece and parts of the Western Balkans. These challenges threaten public health, agriculture and the economy. Traditional water management systems are often inefficient, leading to wasted resources and increased environmental damage. To address this, innovative solutions are needed that prioritise sustainability and reuse. In this context, the EU-funded WaterWise Hub project is tackling these issues by promoting circular economy practices in water management. It brings together governments, research centres, businesses and communities to create smarter, more sustainable water systems. The work centres on developing new technologies, supporting entrepreneurs and sharing knowledge to drive long-term change across the region.

ENFORCE aims to tackle the frequent mismatch between the environmental data gathered by citizens and what authorities require for enforcement purposes. The project will address the challenges in data reporting coming from both the citizens side and the authorities’ side, in order for the obtained data to be usable for environmental enforcement. In addition, the project will capitalize on the use of geo-spatial intelligence and AI-enhanced tools, strengthening their capacities, promoting good practices and preparing an inventory on geospatial intelligence and AI use. The proposed solution will ensure alignment with the Green Deal Data Space to ensure trustworthy data exchange among the relevant stakeholders. ENFORCE encompasses 8 case studies that involve all relevant actors including grassroots organizations, local and regional authorities and a diverse group of experienced researchers forming a scientifically robust interdisciplinary team. The lessons learnt and evaluation results from the case studies will feed the replication guidelines that will be promoted through the ENFORCE capacity building programme and associated all.

IDEATION is an EU-funded project focused on preparing the development of the Digital Twin of the inland waters (rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, snow, and ice) addressing activities to be developed and to make it integrated and interoperable with the European Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) for a unified digital twin of ocean and waters. The DTO is a consistent, high-resolution, multi-dimensional and near real-time virtual representation of the ocean, combining ocean observations, artificial intelligence, advanced modeling operating on high-performance computers and accessible to all.

NATALIE addresses the risks posed by climate change and its impacts and proposes to advance the concepts of “ecosystem-based adaptation” in Europe combined with climate resilient development pathways, as the means for impact driven Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), to accelerate and mainstreaming the adoption of NBS for resilience to climate change, which is also the cornerstone identified in the recent IPCC AR6 WGII Report. NATALIE will deliver innovative and practical innovations in co-creation of solutions and stakeholder engagement, modelling, testing, monitoring and validation mechanisms that will support regions and municipalities to plan and develop adaptation actions bringing along valuable knowledge and experience as actionable knowledge for adaptation and impact-driven NBS.

DRIP focusses on rapidly responding catchments in a predominantly rural area, whilst also making linkages between rural spaces and urban risks. This is a multi-partners’ project, building on many pre-existing initiatives across the project partnership. The project overall seeks to identify a range of replicable low-cost resilience actions that can be delivered and funded by local authorities or/and local communities of different sizes/settings where traditional flood defences are shown not to be appropriate or cost beneficial. The project seeks to identify what level of protection can be afforded to a community using nature-based interventions, tailored flood warning systems and Property Flood Resilience measures.

ICARIA aims to increase knowledge of the impacts of natural disasters on strategic infrastructures in different sectors such as water, energy and transport, has recently been launched. This initiative also seeks to understand how these events could affect the life-cycle costs of these infrastructures in the coming decades and to ensure that investments are made in adaptation measures to cope with these changes.

WATERLINE aims to create a European Digital Water Higher Education Institution (HEI) Alliance, based on the quadruple helix model of innovation, leading to the development of the Alliance’s research, educational and entrepreneurship capacities. This shall leverage the individual, institutional and regional resources required for a transformative structural and sustainable learning and innovation environment.

The WATERVERSE mission is to develop a Water Data Management Ecosystem (WDME) for making data management practices and resources in the water sector accessible, affordable, secure, fair, and easy to use, improving usability of data and the interoperability of data-intensive processes, thus lowering the entry barrier to data spaces, enhancing the resilience of water utilities and boosting the perceived value of data and therefore the market opportunities behind it. 

ULTIMATE aims to create economic value and increase sustainability by valorising resources within the water cycle. 

RECONECT develops a holistic ecosystem-based framework enabling cross-sectoral/transdisciplinary analyses and evaluation to advance the knowledge of NBS in the context of hydro-meteorological risk reduction focusing on floods, storm surges, landslides and droughts. 

LOTUS brings together EU and Indian prominent organisations with the aim to co-create, co-design and co-develop innovative robust affordable low-cost sensing solutions for enhancing India’s water and sanitation challenges in both rural and urban area. 

aqua3S project will create strategies and methods enabling water facilities to easily integrate solutions regarding water safety through the combination of novel technologies in water safety and the standardisation of existing sensor technologies.

NextGen evaluates and champions transformational circular economy solutions and systems around resource use in the water sector. 

FIWARE is a smart solution platform to support SMEs and developers in creating the next generation of internet services, as the main ecosystem for Smart City initiatives for cross-domain data exchange/cooperation and for the NGI initiative. 

ENRICH will bring together expertise and experience from UK and Thailand in the areas of climate variability and climate change, floods and drought modelling and water resources management. 

OVERCOME consortium include world-leading organisations to develop state-of-the-art research plan that integrates digital innovations in natural hazard and risk predictions in order to develop intervention strategies for strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities against climate hazards and health impacts. 

Combining Wastewater-Based Epidemiology, environmental observations and data analytics to monitor the spread of COVID-19 within University of Exeter campus.

RESCCUE aims to improve urban resilience: the capability of cities to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage. 

SIM4NEXUS searched for new scientific evidence on sustainable and integrated management of resources (water, land, energy and food) in Europe and elsewhere, and adopted the Nexus concept in testing pathways for a resource-efficient and low-carbon Europe. 

ESPRIT aims to establish strong collaboration between the UK and Chinese partners to advance our scientific understanding of urban flooding and enhance flood resilience. 

The main objectives of EU-CIRCLE are defining a holistic climate resilience infrastructure model and its constitutional components to develop the technical solution that will implement it and to extensively validate it in real world test cases.