The European research project B-WaterSmart has come to an end. 4 years in which the consortium worked intensively to promote water-smartness in European coastal regions and beyond. 48 months of research, meetings, testing, success, and failure in which the partners not only have achieved a significant impact within the six Living Labs of the project but where the world around them has continued to turn and change too.
B-WaterSmart has come a long way in their six Living Labs to demonstrate and enable systemic innovation toward a more water-smart economy and society through active and sustainable Communities of Practice. By performing specialized training activities, they strengthened the knowledge of decision-makers on water-smart solutions. With public events, they raised the society’s awareness of current and future challenges and their water-smart solutions to deal with them.
The project developed a broad portfolio of cost-effective technologies and water-smart data solutions to increase the reuse of water and wastewater, to promote the recovery of energy and materials as well as to facilitate a smart management of the water infrastructure. The partners presented and will continue to present those solutions on the Water Europe Marketplace, the central knowledge portal for water-smart solutions of B-WaterSmart and other European projects.
For each Living Lab, new or improved target-oriented governance, policies & regulations were suggested for achieving water-smart solutions, including practical guidance on societal and behavioural issues related to their acceptance and implementation.
An assessment framework was created that builds on a solid definition of water-smartness. A framework that can assist decision-makers and practitioners in long-term strategic planning toward their vision of a water-smart society.
New business opportunities were explored by systematically assessing all solutions demonstrated within B-WaterSmart for their exploitation potential and supporting solution providers on their route to market.
It is traditionally time for a review at the end of a project. But let’s not call it a review. Instead, it summarizes the journey’s first steps that the consortium wants to continue in the Living Labs to keep learning from each other, question existing solutions, and rethink our water systems.
Let’s B-WaterSmart!
