While low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies have been studied extensively for a broad spectrum of smart city applications, their potential for water distribution system monitoring in high temporal resolution has not been studied in detail. However, due to their low power demand, these technologies offer new possibilities for operating pressure-monitoring devices for near real-time leak detection in water distribution systems (WDS). By combining long-distance wireless communication with low power consumption, LPWAN technologies promise long periods of maintenance-free device operation without having to rely on an external power source. This is of particular importance for pressure-based leak detection where optimal sensor positions are often located in the periphery of WDS without a suitable power source. To assess the potential of these technologies for replacing widely-used wireless communication technologies for leak detection, GPRS is compared with the LPWAN standards Narrowband IoT, long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) and Sigfox. Based on sampling and transmission rates commonly applied in leak detection, the ability of these three technologies to replace GPRS is analyzed based on a self-developed low-power pressure-monitoring device and a simplified, linear energy-consumption model. The results indicate that even though some of the analyzed LPWAN technologies may suffer from contractual and technical limitations, all of them offer viable alternatives, meeting the requirements of leak detection in WDS. In accordance with existing research on data transmission with these technologies, the findings of this work show that even while retaining a compact design, which entails a limited battery capacity, pressure-monitoring devices can exceed runtimes of 5 years, as required for installation at water meters in Austria. Thus, LPWAN technologies have the potential to advance the wide application of near real-time, pressure-based leak detection in WDS, while simultaneously reducing the cost of device operation significantly.

Although Austria is a water-rich country, impacts of climate change on water supply are already noticeable. Some regions were affected by water scarcity in recent years. Due to climate change, an increase in peak water demand is expected in the future. Therefore, water demand prediction models that include climate indices are of interest. In this paper, we present a general multiple linear regression (GMLR) model that can be applied to selected study sites. We compared the performance of the GMLR model with different modeling approaches, i.e., stepwise multiple linear regression, support vector regression, random forest regression and a neural network approach. All models were trained with water demand and weather data reaching back several years and tested with the last available observation year. The applied modeling approaches achieved a similar performance. As a second step, the GMLR model was used to estimate the peak water demands for the time period 2025–2050. For the future water demand estimate, 16 different climate projections were used. These climate projections represent the worst-case climate change scenario (RCP 8.5). The expected increase in peak water demand could be confirmed with the modeling approach. An increase in peak water demand by 3.5% compared to the reference period was estimated.

The effect of different temporal (from seconds to months) and spatial aggregation scales (from individual users to full urban areas) on water demand behavior has been explored to a limited degree. The effort described here extends those works by evaluating the scale effects of residential water consumption in a unique US data set that covers 10,000 households with a 1-gallon (3.79 L) hourly resolution over 2 years. A preliminary data analysis and a sequential Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is carried out to assess the effect of different temporal (weekly, daily, hourly) and spatial aggregation (individual meters and groups every 10, 100 and 1,000 meters) levels on demand. Results show that individual users act very differently from each other, and individual consumer variability is only canceled out when a significant number of households are aggregated. The implications of this finding are assessed from a hydraulic modeling perspective as the spatiotemporal scale of measurements may condition the type of analysis that can be carried out in practice. However, additional work is needed to explore the point at which it may be worth embracing a micro (per fixture/household) or a macro (per node/network) approach for different purposes.

Historically, water utilities have relied on tried-and-true practices in the design and operation of their infrastructure, tapping new resources and expanding networks as needed. However, as the effects of climate change and/or urbanization increasingly impact both water supply and demand, utilities need new, holistic planning and management approaches. Integrated planning approaches must account for changing policies, technological progress, and unique, setting-specific operating conditions. Based on this notion, an international web seminar with faculty, researchers, and students from nine universities across five continents was conducted. In the 3-month seminar, participants were split into groups and tasked with developing future-proof, sustainable water management solutions for fictitious settings with unique resource availability, climate change predictions, demographic, and socioeconomic constraints. The goal of the seminar was to combine participants’ unique perspectives to tackle challenges in developing future water infrastructure, while forming lasting relationships. Water management concepts became more daring or “out-of-the-box” as the seminar progressed. Most groups opted for a holistic approach, optimizing existing infrastructure, integrating decentralized water management, furthering digitization, and fostering the adoption of innovative policy and planning strategies. To gauge their impact on the evolution of ideas, group dynamics and communication were observed throughout the seminar. As a result, the findings serve not only as a compendium of ideas and concepts for holistic design in the water sector, but also facilitate international collaboration, improve communication in cross-cultural teams or guide the development of training programs in water management for researchers, professional engineers, or water utilities.

Durch die fortschreitende Digitalisierung und Automatisierung in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft kommt den Systemen der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik (IKT) eine immer größere Bedeutung zu. Während die zunehmende Vernetzung von wasserwirtschaftlichen Anlagen und IKT-Systemen zahlreiche betriebliche und wirtschaftliche Vorteile mit sich bringt, ruft sie auch höheres Potenzial für IKT-Vorfälle hervor. Dabei kann es sich um gezielte Cyberattacken auf die eingesetzten Anlagen oder nicht zielgerichtete, systematische Angriffe von Dritten handeln, die in Störungen des Betriebs oder Ausfällen bei Wasserversorgungsunternehmen (WVU) und Abwasserreinigungsanlagen (ARA) resultieren. Der IKT-Sicherheit, insbesondere bei der Sicherstellung der Versorgungs- und Betriebssicherheit siedlungswasserwirtschaftlicher Betriebe, kommt daher eine entsprechend hohe Bedeutung zu. Um den Status und die bisherige Rolle der IKT-Sicherheit in der österreichischen Siedlungswasserwirtschaft zu erheben, wurde im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Nachhaltigkeit und Tourismus eine Studie mit einer Reihe beispielhaft ausgewählter und näher untersuchter WVU und ARA durchgeführt. Neben dem institutionellen Umgang mit IKT-Systemen wurden dabei die etablierten und geplanten technischen und organisatorischen Schutzmaßnahmen erhoben. Auf Basis einer systematischen Schwachstellenanalyse wurden Kaskadenwirkungen potenzieller Gefährdungen auf die Versorgungssicherheit bei WVU und die Betriebssicherheit bei ARA analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen an sich hohen Standard der IKT-Sicherheit, aber auch eine Reihe nicht unerheblicher, vor allem organisatorischer, Schwachstellen, die einer Nachschärfung im Bereich der Maßnahmensetzung bedürfen. Bei der Mehrheit der Entscheidungsträger ist ein Bewusstsein für auftretende Risiken vorhanden und idealerweise wird versucht, die IKT-Sicherheit der Anlagen einem kontinuierlichen Verbesserungsprozess zu unterwerfen und diesen auch laufend zu evaluieren. Advancements in digitalization and automation in the water sector lead to a continuously increasing role of information and communication technology (ICT). While a more extensive use and further integration of ICT systems induce numerous operational and economic benefits, the vulnerability of water utilities (WU) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) to ICT incidents and cyber threats, potentially resulting in damages or disruptions, is arising. Consequently, the security of ICT systems is a key issue of reliable WU and WWTP operation. In this work, we present the results of a study comissioned by the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism with the aim of assessing the overall status and implemented efforts to ensure ICT security in the Austrian water sector. In collaboration with several WU and WWTP an in-depth analysis of operational and technical security measures was conducted and the gained results were used for an extensive vulnerability analysis. Based on identified vulnerabilities, key threats to ICT systems were identified and consequences for WU and WWTP operation were assessed. Results show a generally high level of ICT security, but also highlight a number of common, mainly operational, vulnerabilities. The majority of decision makers, managers and personnel are aware of evolving cyber threats and focus on measures to protect and harden their ICT systems.

Increasingly adverse effects of climate change, accelerating urbanization, overtaxing of resources and aging infrastructure pose a wide range of challenges for current and future water managers. The scale and urgency of these challenges require innovative, holistic solutions, often surpassing the scope of traditional civil and environmental engineering education. Nonetheless, few educational initiatives or academic programs exist that enable civil and environmental engineering students to develop water management solutions in a transdisciplinary, international environment. The international web seminar Future Water, now in its second iteration, is designed to bridge this gap by offering students, educators, and researchers from all over the world such an environment.In Future Water, students develop sustainable water management concepts for predefined settings in small, self-organized teams, supported by a set of formal lectures and input from a faculty advisor. This basic idea is the same for both iterations of the seminar; the status quo in academic education, however, has evolved considerably since the first seminar. When Future Water first took place just before the COVID-19 pandemic, working entirely online was novel to most participants. While virtual collaboration has become commonplace since 2020, the recent, yet widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents another significant paradigm shift in water education, which had to be considered when conceptualizing the 2025 seminar.In this work, we detail how the rise of AI tools in engineering education, combined with lessons from the first seminar, impacted the second’s conceptualization, materials and outcomes. For this purpose, data from both seminars - i.e., lecture recordings, meeting transcripts and students’ work products, as well as submitted questionnaires, time sheets and AI prompts - is combined. First, an integrated analysis of these materials is used to reveal commonalities, differences and gaps in student teams’ water management solutions. Second, the resulting insights are correlated with team members’ academic backgrounds, seniority, as well as group dynamics and communication characteristics. Third, the collected prompts are used to quantify the degree to which AI was adopted by civil and environmental engineering students and how it impacted their research, solution development and communication of water management concepts to interdisciplinary audiences.Finally, we address how the compendium of findings affect the goal of establishing Future Water as a permanent forum for innovative water education beyond the limitations of traditional engineering curricula, national or societal boundaries.