How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future

Water is increasingly taking center stage when it comes to coping with climate change. Especially in urban areas, negative consequences from heavy rainfall events and prolonged dry periods are rising worldwide. In the past, the various tasks of urban water management were performed by different depa...

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Autores principales:	Günter Müller-Czygan, Viktoriya Tarasyuk, Christian Wagner, Manuela Wimmer
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	smart water success factors digitization sustainability Technology T
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5f8dc0b25f49435195a1d70cfe5fdd47
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5f8dc0b25f49435195a1d70cfe5fdd472021-11-25T17:28:07ZHow Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future10.3390/en142277091996-1073https://doaj.org/article/5f8dc0b25f49435195a1d70cfe5fdd472021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/22/7709https://doaj.org/toc/1996-1073Water is increasingly taking center stage when it comes to coping with climate change. Especially in urban areas, negative consequences from heavy rainfall events and prolonged dry periods are rising worldwide. In the past, the various tasks of urban water management were performed by different departments that often did not cooperate with each other (water supply, wastewater disposal, green space irrigation, etc.), as the required water supply was not a question of available water volumes. This is already changing with climate change, in some cases even dramatically. More and more, it is necessary to consider how to distribute available water resources in urban areas, especially during dry periods, since wastewater treatment is also becoming more complex and costly. In the future, urban water management will examine water use in terms of its various objectives, and will need to provide alternative water resources for these different purposes (groundwater, river water, storm water, treated wastewater, etc.). The necessary technological interconnection requires intelligent digital systems. Furthermore, the water industry must also play its role in global CO<sub>2</sub> reduction and make its procedural treatment processes more efficient; this will also only succeed with adequate digital systems. Although digitization has experienced an enormous surge in development over the last five years and numerous solutions are available to address the challenges described previously, there is still a large gap between the scope of offerings and their implementation. Researchers at Hof University of Applied Sciences have investigated the reasons for this imbalance as part of WaterExe4.0, the first meta-study on digitization in the German-speaking water industry, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Only 11% of roughly 700 identified products, projects and studies relate to real applications. For example, the surveyed experts of the water sector stated that everyday problems are considered too little or hardly at all in new solutions, which greatly overburdens users. Furthermore, they see no adequate possibility for a systematic analysis of new ideas to identify significant obstacles and to find the best way to start and implement a digitization project. The results from four methodologically different sub-surveys (literature and market research, survey, expert interviews and workshops) provide a reliable overview of the current situation in the German-speaking water industry and its expectations for the future. The results are also transferable to other countries.Günter Müller-CzyganViktoriya TarasyukChristian WagnerManuela WimmerMDPI AGarticlesmart watersuccess factorsdigitizationsustainabilityTechnologyTENEnergies, Vol 14, Iss 7709, p 7709 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	smart water success factors digitization sustainability Technology T
spellingShingle	smart water success factors digitization sustainability Technology T Günter Müller-Czygan Viktoriya Tarasyuk Christian Wagner Manuela Wimmer How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
description	Water is increasingly taking center stage when it comes to coping with climate change. Especially in urban areas, negative consequences from heavy rainfall events and prolonged dry periods are rising worldwide. In the past, the various tasks of urban water management were performed by different departments that often did not cooperate with each other (water supply, wastewater disposal, green space irrigation, etc.), as the required water supply was not a question of available water volumes. This is already changing with climate change, in some cases even dramatically. More and more, it is necessary to consider how to distribute available water resources in urban areas, especially during dry periods, since wastewater treatment is also becoming more complex and costly. In the future, urban water management will examine water use in terms of its various objectives, and will need to provide alternative water resources for these different purposes (groundwater, river water, storm water, treated wastewater, etc.). The necessary technological interconnection requires intelligent digital systems. Furthermore, the water industry must also play its role in global CO<sub>2</sub> reduction and make its procedural treatment processes more efficient; this will also only succeed with adequate digital systems. Although digitization has experienced an enormous surge in development over the last five years and numerous solutions are available to address the challenges described previously, there is still a large gap between the scope of offerings and their implementation. Researchers at Hof University of Applied Sciences have investigated the reasons for this imbalance as part of WaterExe4.0, the first meta-study on digitization in the German-speaking water industry, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Only 11% of roughly 700 identified products, projects and studies relate to real applications. For example, the surveyed experts of the water sector stated that everyday problems are considered too little or hardly at all in new solutions, which greatly overburdens users. Furthermore, they see no adequate possibility for a systematic analysis of new ideas to identify significant obstacles and to find the best way to start and implement a digitization project. The results from four methodologically different sub-surveys (literature and market research, survey, expert interviews and workshops) provide a reliable overview of the current situation in the German-speaking water industry and its expectations for the future. The results are also transferable to other countries.
format	article
author	Günter Müller-Czygan Viktoriya Tarasyuk Christian Wagner Manuela Wimmer
author_facet	Günter Müller-Czygan Viktoriya Tarasyuk Christian Wagner Manuela Wimmer
author_sort	Günter Müller-Czygan
title	How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
title_short	How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
title_full	How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
title_fullStr	How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
title_full_unstemmed	How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future
title_sort	how does digitization succeed in the municipal water sector? the waterexe4.0 meta-study identifies barriers as well as success factors, and reveals expectations for the future
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5f8dc0b25f49435195a1d70cfe5fdd47
work_keys_str_mv	AT guntermullerczygan howdoesdigitizationsucceedinthemunicipalwatersectorthewaterexe40metastudyidentifiesbarriersaswellassuccessfactorsandrevealsexpectationsforthefuture AT viktoriyatarasyuk howdoesdigitizationsucceedinthemunicipalwatersectorthewaterexe40metastudyidentifiesbarriersaswellassuccessfactorsandrevealsexpectationsforthefuture AT christianwagner howdoesdigitizationsucceedinthemunicipalwatersectorthewaterexe40metastudyidentifiesbarriersaswellassuccessfactorsandrevealsexpectationsforthefuture AT manuelawimmer howdoesdigitizationsucceedinthemunicipalwatersectorthewaterexe40metastudyidentifiesbarriersaswellassuccessfactorsandrevealsexpectationsforthefuture
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How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future

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