9. Event ISCN Online Advisory Programme: Intelligent water management

In total, three innovative projects were presented that offered different perspectives on the topic: The flood protection project of the city of Goslar delved deeper into the local context in Germany, while the SCOREWater project in the cities of Amersfoort, Barcelona and Gothenburg took more of a European approach. The presentation was rounded off with a project on dealing with water scarcity in Jordan.

Renate Mitterhuber, Head of the Smart Cities Department at the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building, opened the event with a brief look back at the highlights of the ISCN in 2022, such as the visit to the Smart City Expo World Congress in November. The network secretariat would like to take this opportunity to echo Mrs Mitterhuber's words and thank the growing ISCN community for their "ambition to shape cities for sustainability and the common good"! Ms Mitterhuber also introduced the topic of the session by highlighting the importance of digital, innovative solutions for dealing better with impending extreme weather events such as heavy rain or heatwaves. In particular, the concept of the Smart Water City appears to offer ground-breaking advantages in terms of adaptation and mitigation.

Dr Stefan Wittek from Clausthal University of Technology took the participants on a journey back to 2017, when massive flooding destroyed parts of the central German town of Goslar. Goslar is located in the Harz Mountains and experienced heavy rainfall at high speed and in short intervals, which made forecasting very difficult. Therefore, the city trained an artificial intelligence with historical data to develop a model that can predict both flooding and maximum tolerable water levels. This step allowed the warning periods to be increased from 20 minutes to up to four hours.

Pieter de Jong, project manager of SCOREWater, presented the ongoing test phases of three projects for the collection, calculation and presentation of various data in Amersfoort, Barcelona and Gothenburg. He demonstrated how "information about human behaviour" can be obtained from wastewater. For example, by using intelligent applications to analyse wastewater, the city of Barcelona can better assess water consumption and demand. It can also gain insights into the activity and well-being of the population, e.g. antibiotic concentrations and drug residues in wastewater. Even if the legal regulations still present a hurdle, the information collected is valuable for analysing public health, especially when comparing different parts of the city and the associated population groups.

Johannes Stork, who has been working on strengthening the resilience of water suppliers in Jordan on behalf of GIZ since 2014, shifted the focus from Europe to the MENA region. Water resources are scarce there and irrigation is the subject of conflicts between different local population groups. "In addition to technical solutions, the involvement of consumers, farmers and politicians is essential in order to realise projects like ours," he emphasised. A reduction or optimisation of water consumption can therefore only be achieved through the general commitment of the population and the will of leading institutions. In order to get local stakeholders enthusiastic about innovative solutions, they must first be made aware of the implementation and the benefits for their everyday lives.

The final discussion showed that we must never think or implement technology without the support of political decision-makers and the approval of civil society. The significance of the projects presented and their implementation are of fundamental importance for the quality of life of the respective local population.

In his closing remarks, Sebastian Fritz, advisor for the ISCN at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), summarised the most important findings:

• Water management is one of the keys to urban resilience.
• Technology can only be part of the solution; we also need to bring all the stakeholders together.
• No matter which approach or perspective we choose, there is always common ground. That is why it is important that we continue to exchange ideas and work together.