WATERNOMICS

Description

The UN has designated 2013 as the International Year for Cooperation on Water to highlight the global challenges for water management. The World Economic Forum (in 2013) listed "The Water Supply Crises" as a major risk to global economic growth and environmental policies in the next 10 years. A reduction in water consumption is a key measure to the supply crisis - with consequent savings in energy. 

WATERNOMICS will enable reduced water consumption by increasing awareness of the availability of water resources and providing personalized feedback about water consumption. Currently, the limited information available from the water services ecosystem is interoperable or not presented effectively to stakeholders. WATERNOMICS overcomes this problem by implementing a new level of smart meter and sensor technology and knowledge/social media based techniques to the water sector. 

WATERNOMICS introduces Demand Response principles and takes a human centric approach that uses novel channels and interfaces including personalised water data, water availability based pricing, gamification of water usage statistics and open business models. 

WATERNOMICS introduces forecasting and fault detection diagnosis to the water sector and pioneering a new dialogue between water stakeholders. Knowledge transfer from the energy sector (ISO and IPMVP) will be used to provide an accepted baseline to the work. 

WATERNOMICS was demonstrated at four high impact pilots focusing on specific end users and stakeholders.

• Domestic users in the municipality of Thermi, Greece
• Corporate users Linate Airport (SEA), Milan, Italy
• Public/Mixed used environment at Coláiste na Coiribe post primary school Galway, Ireland
• Public/Mixed used environment at The Engineering Building, NUI Galway, Ireland

WATERNOMICS combines key expertise including ICT and sensor development, engineering and commercial/marketing expertise. The project highlights business development, exploitation planning, and outcome oriented dissemination.

Key Information

Links: Project webpage

Contact

Louise Hannon BA BAI MIEI CEng
Senior Research Associate, Chartered Engineer
Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Informatics
University of Galway,
Ireland.
Email: louise.hannon@universityofgalway.ie
Phone: +353-91-492 733
Skype: louiseehannon