WATER-SUSTAIN (PID2024-156033OA-C33)
Grant PID2024-156033OA-C33 funded by:
Optimized management of bio-pollutant warnings in freshwater bodies with sustainable digital infrastructures
WATER-SUSTAIN is a subproject of the coordinated BEST-WATER project, focused on developing sustainable digital infrastructures for early and in-situ detection of emerging bio-pollutants, particularly cyanobacteria and geosmin, in lentic water bodies such as reservoirs and lakes.
These contaminants pose a growing societal challenge due to their direct impact on the availability of safe water for human consumption and recreational use, as well as their natural reoccurrence under certain environmental conditions. In this context, the project aligns with Directive (EU) 2020/2184, which requires Member States to monitor and control water bodies intended for human consumption, including the analysis of cyanobacteria.
WATER-SUSTAIN addresses this challenge from an innovative perspective: optimizing not only detection, but also the deployment and sustainability of the digital infrastructures required to support early-warning systems.
Thematic areas and interdisciplinary scope
The project has a strong interdisciplinary character, integrating knowledge and technologies from the following areas:
- Modeling, simulation, and optimization of complex systems
- Telecommunications and sensor networks
- Digital infrastructures and distributed computing
- Artificial intelligence, computer vision, and automation
- Renewable energy and sustainability
- Water management and decision-support systems
This combination makes it possible to address bio-pollutant detection not only from an analytical standpoint, but as a complete socio-technical system where technology, energy, resources, and environmental constraints must be evaluated jointly.
Approach and objectives
Countries with limited water resources, such as Spain, can increase the availability of drinking water through predictive and proactive management of their water bodies. However, many current solutions overlook key aspects such as energy efficiency, scalability, adaptability, and the sustainability of computing infrastructures.
WATER-SUSTAIN aims to:
- Optimize the deployment of digital infrastructures that support early-warning systems for bio-pollutants.
- Align technology deployments with the real needs of water managers, available resources, and environmental constraints.
- Integrate modeling, simulation, and optimization (M&S&O) to evaluate the behavior and impact of infrastructures before real-world deployment.
- Ensure solutions are effective, scalable, and environmentally sustainable by integrating computing, communications, and renewable generation.
Main scientific and technical contributions
1. Sustainable digital infrastructure design
The project proposes an advanced infrastructure design for bio-pollutant early-warning systems that systematically integrates, for the first time:
- Key sustainability indicators (KPIs) such as ecological footprint, cost, energy consumption, latency, and execution time.
- Optimization in technology selection to minimize environmental impact and maximize overall system efficiency.
2. Advanced Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization (M&S&O) framework
The project will develop a framework based on:
- The DEVS (Discrete Event System Specification) formalism
- MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering) principles
This framework will enable real-time co-simulation and incremental deployment of infrastructures, allowing for the first time a collaborative and integrated evaluation of sustainability, renewable energy, computing, and communications in bio-pollutant early-warning systems.
3. Dynamic deployment optimization
The project will develop optimizations that enable:
- Alignment between manager requirements, available economic and physical resources, and environmental constraints.
- Dynamic interaction between virtual and real subsystems, overcoming static and isolated state-of-the-art approaches.
Scientific, technical, and international impact
WATER-SUSTAIN is expected to make significant contributions to scientific and technical knowledge in the areas of digitalization and telecommunications applied to sustainable water management.
Key impacts include:
- Establishing a global framework for the sustainable integration of digital technologies for early detection of bio-pollutants.
- Developing predictive models, real-time data acquisition and processing, and decision-support for sustainable technology deployment.
- Generating interdisciplinary knowledge through collaboration among experts in AI, automation, robotics, and telecommunications.
- Applying the developed methodologies to other cross-cutting sectors such as smart cities, personalized health, or advanced driver-assistance systems.
The project will prioritize dissemination of results in high-impact international journals and conferences with open-access publications, as well as knowledge transfer through workshops and direct collaboration with water-management entities (e.g., public administrations and basin authorities).
In addition, BEST-WATER and WATER-SUSTAIN will promote internationalization by fostering collaborations with academic and industrial groups and preparing new proposals to programs such as Horizon Europe or PRIMA, strengthening the visibility and international competitiveness of the participating teams.