The European Water Smart Connect project, focused on interregional collaboration to promote sustainable water use, concludes
After 13 months of intense activity and cross-regional collaboration, the European project Water Smart Connect, funded by the European Union, comes to an end with the publication of a strategic action plan that proposes concrete solutions to face current and future water challenges. The project has brought together seven European regions with the aim of transforming water management through innovation, cooperation and the use of existing ecosystems and value chains in each territory.
The Water Smart Connect consortium has been led by the Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and the consortium has been formed by European clusters: the Catalan Water Partnership (Catalonia, Spain), Water Alliance (Netherlands), CLEAN (Denmark), Aquanova (France), ZINNAE (Aragon, Spain). Together, they have worked to identify shared regional priorities and promote coordinated actions at European level.
The project has followed a methodology in three phases: firstly, the identification of key issues in research, development and innovation based on regional skills and needs; secondly, the development of activities to promote interregional collaboration on common priorities; and, finally, the joint creation of the action plan.
The final document includes proposals focused on three main strategic axes:
- Improving water quality and preventing pollution, with special attention to emerging pollutants such as PFAS and microplastics.
- Adapting to climate change, through smart monitoring technologies, nature-based solutions and better spatial planning.
- The water-food nexus, with actions for more sustainable agriculture based on precision irrigation, the reduction of chemicals, water reuse and circular technologies.
In addition to a shared diagnosis, the plan proposes short, medium and long-term actions, digital tools, strategies for data exchange, multi-stakeholder participation models and funding recommendations through programmes such as Horizon Europe, LIFE or Interreg. In addition, the plan provides guidance to transfer European priorities to specific local strategies, promoting initiatives such as water reuse, rainwater management or the adaptation of urban infrastructures to the new climate context.
With the closure of the project, Water Smart Connect lays the foundations for future collaborations, offering a shared proposal for actions, an interregional framework and a community of actors aligned with a more coordinated and sustainable vision of water management.
