A Strategic Digital Transformation for the Water Industry

This book is a compilation of the knowledge shared and generated so far in the IWA Digital Water Programme. It is an insightful collection of white papers covering best practices, linking academic and industrial studies/insights with applications to give real-world examples of digital transformation. These White Papers are designed to help utilities, water professionals and all those interested in water management and stewardship issues to better understand the opportunities of digital technologies.

This book covers a plethora of topics including:

Instrumentation and data generation

Artificial intelligence and digital twins

The digital transformation and public health

Mapping the digital transformation journey into the future

With these topics, the aim is to present an all-encompassing reference for practitioners to use in their day-to-day activities.

Through the Digital Water Programme, the IWA leverages its worldwide member expertise to guide a new generation of water and wastewater utilities on their digital journey towards the uptake of digital technologies and their integration into water services.

Forewords

The importance of the digital transformation to the global water industry
Academia’s role in digital transformation
Digitalisation in Practice

1. Defining Digital Water

1.1 | Introduction

1.2 | Digital impact on the economics of water and wastewater

1.3 | Navigating the digital journey

1.4 | Accelerating digital water adoption

1.5 | The roadmap forward

1.6 | Digital Water as the only option

2. Instrumentation to data generation

Introduction

2.1 | Instrumentation in digital transformation

2.2 | The value of meta-data for water resource recovery facilities

2.3 | The importance of knowing what we do not know

Conclusion — Transforming data to information

3. Artificial intelligence, digital twins and dynamic resilience

Introduction

3.1 | Artificial intelligence solutions for the water sector

3.2 | Operational digital twins in the urban water sector

3.3 | Digital dynamic resilience for wastewater treatment processes: Exploiting real data for long-term resilience

Conclusion — Transforming information to insight

4. Digital transformation in practice 

Introduction

4.1 | Improving public health through smart sanitation and digital water

4.2 | Case studies on the use of digital tools

Conclusion — Application, application, application

5. Digital transformation — now and moving forward

Introduction

5.1 | A digital future from the future’s perspective

Conclusion — Digital water is here to stay

Afterword

Acknowledgements

Bibliography