Project description
ICT for water resources management
SmartH2O: an ICT Platform to leverage on Social Computing for the efficient management of Water Consumption
The SmartH2O project develops an ICT platform for improving the management of urban and peri-urban water demand thanks to the integrated use of smart meters, social computation, and dynamic water pricing, based on advanced models of consumer behavior.
The SmartH2O project aims to provide water utilities, municipalities and citizens, with an ICT-enabled platform to design, develop and implement better water management practices and policies, leading to a reduction in water consumption, without compromising the quality of life, and to an increase in resource security.
The solution proposed by the SmartH2O project is to develop an ICT platform that will be able to:
• Understand and model the consumers’ current behaviour on the basis of historical and real-time water usage data;
• Predict how the consumer behaviour can be influenced by various water demand management policies, from water savings campaigns, to social awareness campaigns, to dynamic water pricing schemes;
• Raise the awareness of water consumers on their current water usage habits and their lifestyle implications and to stimulate them to reduce water use;
The SmartH2O ICT infrastructure will thus enable water managers to close the loop between actual water consumption levels and desired targets, using information about how the consumers have adapted their behavior to the new situation (e.g. new regulations, new water prices, appeals to water savings during droughts). This feedback will then allow to aptly revise the water demand management policies, enabling to maximise the water and energy saving goals
Expected Results
The project is expected to demonstrate how social awareness and dynamic pricing instruments can modify the behavior of water use. A quantifiable reduction of water consumption is expected, especially in drought periods, when water is scarcer. Water utilities can therefore assess the impact of smart metering to improve the efficiency of their operations.
Urban water use is highly dynamic, variable over time and space, and is expected to constantly increase in the coming years both in Europe and worldwide. Expanding existing infrastructures to access farther or deeper water resources might be one option, but the economic and energy costs could be unsustainably high. There is a need for water demand management strategies (incentives, water pricing, awareness campaigns) to be efficient and sustainable technically, economically, and socially. Yet, individual and collective behavioural response to specific water conservation policies might significantly vary with economic drivers as well as socio-psychological determinants within the same urban context.
The SmartH2O project aims at providing water utilities, the municipalities, and citizens, with an ICT enabled platform to design, develop and implement better water demand management policies, which are based on a shared understanding and motivation by the water users, thus leading to a reduction in water consumption, while not compromising the quality of life.
SmartH2O builds a bi-directional communication stream between citizens and the water utility: in one direction, user behavioural data are collected through smart meters and an online social participation application (social game); in the other, awareness campaigns and price signals are delivered through the same app to inform the users on how to save water and money.
SmartH2O will be tested in two main real world cases: in Spain, in the city of Valencia, and in Switzerland (in Canton Ticino). Moreover, test activities and interaction with the end users will be also performed in the United Kingdom, in the London Area. In these exemplary cases, the SmartH2O project will enable a constructive and continuous interaction between citizens and water utilities in the management of our most precious resource: water.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
Call for proposal
FP7-ICT-2013-11
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CP - Collaborative project (generic)Coordinator
6928 Manno
Switzerland