Related EU Projects

This paper outlines some of the actions being pursued in Portugal with a view to improve water efficiency in buildings and products. One such action is the AveiroDOMUS House of the Future which will be used to study various efficiency solutions for resources’ use in buildings, and to assess their economic and environmental value. The house has an advanced design and its main objective is to be built in accordance with sustainable building standards, ensuring proper interaction with local ecosystems and a good interior environment (air quality, absence of noise, comfortable temperature and humidity). Moreover, the house also aims to reduce the consumption of essential resources by choosing the appropriate materials, use renewable energy sources and optimize the water cycle. The hydrological cycle was optimized by incorporating sustainability principles such as water recycling and reutilization, the installation of low-flow fixtures and the use of rainwater, groundwater and salt water, the latter being abundant in the area where the house is to be built – the Aveiro Salt Lagoon. The house is used as a permanent research and development laboratory, open to both industry and the public. It is divided in three parts, one part is open to visitors, another part is inhabited and another one is under study. It is projected that the latter will support the study and development of a possible model for the certification of water efficiency of buildings in Portugal. Another initiative is that taken by universities and firms in the sector. This has led to the formation of an association (ANQIP – National Association for Quality in Building Installations) to decide on the implementation of a voluntary water-efficiency certification and labelling system for products.

Silva-Afonso, A. and Rodrigues, C. (n.d.). Water efficiency of products and buildings: the implementation of certification and labelling measures in Portugal. [online] Available at:

https://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB11855.pdf [Accessed 29 Jan. 2018].

This article showcases the challenges faced in the Cayman Islands for the design and installation of a well-field in an aquifer, while preventing the degradation a freshwater lens. In the Cayman Islands, it is typical to abstract the saline water needed for reverse osmosis plants from deep wells and dispose brines into zones that are deeper than the location zones.

In this particular case, the low porosity cap rock of the Cayman Formation isolated effectively the freshwater lens from water circulation in the deeper part of the succession. The well-field abstracted saline water from an open zone below the cap rock of the Cayman Formation at a depth of 45–65 m, and disposed brine at a depth of 62–86 m, where the bottom of the brine disposal zone is highly cavernous.    

The plant became operational in 1998, and production capacity was doubled in 1999. The Lower Valley reverse osmosis plant has been operating successfully without adverse effects on the Lower Valley freshwater lens. This is evident by water quality data obtained from a network of monitoring wells designed to monitor the effects of the plant on the freshwater lens.

Jones, B., van Genderen, H. and van Zanten, T. (n.d.). Wellfield Design for a Reverse Osmosis Plant located over a Fresh Water Lens in Lower Valley, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. [online]

Available at:

Link

[Accessed 7 Feb. 2018].

WeSenseIt has developed a citizen-based observatory of water, which allowed citizens and communities to become active stakeholders in information capturing, evaluation and communication.

The following was proposed:

(i) Data collection: (a) a first “hard” layer consisting of low-cost, static and portable devices that sense and transfer water information when automatically monitored or when initiated by citizens from their mobile devices; (b) a second “soft” layer consisting of techniques designed to harness citizens’ Collective Intelligence, i.e. the information, experience and knowledge embodied within individuals and communities, which enabled both direct messages to the authorities (with mobile-phone pictures, messages, etc.) as well as crowd-sourcing (e.g. by mining social networks like Twitter and Facebook, as well as bulletin boards, RSS feeds, etc.).

(ii) The development of descriptive and predictive models and decision-making tools which integrated sensor and citizen-based data; the data suppliers (physical sensors or people) were seen as nodes of an integrated heterogeneous data collection network which had undergone progressive multi-objective optimisation and tuning.
(iii) Two-way feedback and exchange of environmental knowledge/experience between citizens and authorities for decision-making and governance within an e-collaboration framework, has improved transparency, knowledge management, accountability and responsiveness and facilitated participation in water management.
The citizen observatory of water was tested and demonstrated in three different case studies in water management with civil protection agencies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy. The topic was the entire hydrologic cycle, with a major focus on variables responsible for floods and drought occurrences.
 

The project results had the potential to fundamentally change the traditional concept of environmental monitoring and forecasting, as well as models of governance.

The main aim of the project is to promote the use and encourage the use and the market penetration of aquaTest-MO product, a new water quality monitoring and control product for WWTPs based on an eco-innovative on-line monitoring of the effluent, resulting from a research project. The aquaTest-MO product allows WWTPs to run affordable on-line monitoring scheme of the process, deriving in higher quality of treated water (less time to detect problems, less time for solving problems), meaning an increased productivity of the whole system and a faster water quality control loop.