WQeMS

Open surface water bodies, which are used to produce drinking water, have a variable size and shape. Developed products of the Copernicus Land Monitoring, Marine Environment Monitoring, and Emergency Monitoring Services, can only support in a limited way; especially due to the offered spatial resolution (e.g. via Sentinel-3 and PROBA-V). The overall objective of WQeMS is to provide an open surface Water Quality Emergency Monitoring Service (WQeMS) to the water utilities’ industry leveraging complementary on high spatial resolution level Copernicus products and services (e.g. Sentinel-2 and -1 information content); based on attested processes with in situ data. Target is the optimization of the use of resources by gaining access to locally accurate water-status information.

WQeMS relies on the Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (e.g. DIAS ONDA) aiming also at connection with current Thematic Exploitation Platforms. Generated knowledge shall support existing decision support systems (DSSs) and not the development of a new one. WQeMS will provide for a wide set of parameters useful for the quality assessment of raw drinking water and possible contamination alerts’ issuance, as captured by existing and emerging requirements of the water utilities industry. By enabling such a continuous and detailed monitoring capacity, citizens will gain a deeper insight and confidence for selected key quality elements of the ‘water we drink’, while enjoying a friendlier environmental footprint from a more intelligent production process.

In this context, WQeMS will promote further alignment of existing decision support and implementation chains with the updated Drinking and Water Framework Directives. Activities and results are expected to contribute to Europe’s endeavours towards GEO and its priorities in the framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The main ambition of WQeMS is to receive approval by the Member States to be embedded in the existing Copernicus Services portfolio.

CERTH/ITI Role

CERTH will undertake the responsibility for the whole project coordination and also the responsibility for coordinating and monitoring WP3 (knowledge generation, pilot demonstration, and capacity building), Task 4.5 (Alerting module: reporting & crowdsourcing), and Task 5.1 (Dissemination and Clustering Activities). In addition, CERTH will be actively involved in the design and implementation of all project actions as well as in the writing of its deliverables.

Consortium

Centre For Research And Technology Hellas – Information Technologies Institute (CERTH), Greece , Coordinator
Centro De Investigacion Ecologica Y Aplicaciones Forestales, Spain
EOMAP GMBH & CO KG, Germany
CETAQUA, Centro Tecnologico Del Agua, Fundacion Privada, Spain
Autorita’ Di Bacino Distrettuale Delle Alpi Orientali, Italy
SERCO Italia SPA, Italy
Etairia Hydrefsis Kai Apochetefsis Thessalonikis Ae, Greece
Engineering – Ingegneria Informatica SPA, Italy
Suomen Ymparistokeskus, Finland
PHOEBE Research And Innovation LTD, Cyprus
EMPRESA Municipal De Aguas Y Saneamiento De Murcia SA, Spain