The water sector today is digital only to a limited extent. The infrastructure intensive water and sewage utility sector in particular has had little benefit from the development in communication and digitization we have seen over the past decades, while industrial water management has embraced the technological possibilities to a larger extent.
Global Water Intelligence (2016) has estimated the global market for control and monitoring systems at a value of US$ 21.3 Bn. in 2016 with an annual growth rate of 7.2 %. Growth rates for solutions connected to data management and analysis is expected to be an even higher 11.9 %.
The conclusions from Global Water Intelligence is in line with the Danish Water Vision 2025 from the Danish Ministry of Environment, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Danish Environmental Technology Association and the Danish National Association of Water Services.
One of the reasons why climate adaption in a Greater Copenhagen context calls for smart solutions is the fact, that large amounts of rainwater in the future must be managed on the surface. It is too costly, and sometimes impossible, to increase the capacity of the sewage system enough to manage extreme rainfalls on its own. However, different types of urban infrastructure will consequently converge, for instance when a road must be able to handle every day traffic as well as an occasional cloudburst. In order to properly manage such a challenge integrated and intelligent monitoring and control is needed. For that purpose, data is needed, especially on the water side. Data of potentially great value across various fields.
Links:
Danish Water Vision 2015 (in Danish only)
