Accelerating Water Smartness in Coastal Europe and Beyond

Coastal areas are the most densely populated, productive, and economically dominant regions in the world. Rapid development brings with it growing and conflicting demands on natural resources, urging coastal areas into the center of climate change adaptation efforts. In particular, water scarcity and pollution are frontline problems that can only be managed with cross-country, cross-sectoral transformation to achieve water smartness, create systemic innovations in the water sector and ultimately move toward a more circular, sustainable economy.

The goal of the Horizon 2020 project B-WaterSmart was to accelerate this transformation, initially in coastal European regions, where 40 percent of the population of the EU live, and subsequently over the whole European Union. On behalf of the European Commission, adelphi worked with six “Living Lab” communities: Alicante, Spain; Bodø, Norway; Flanders, Belgium; Lisbon, Portugal; East Frisia, Germany; and Venice, Italy. Each Living Lab was selected due to the unique, complementary challenges encountered there, which means that solutions developed in these Labs are scalable to deal with similar issues in different regions. All cases had specifically defined criteria and target values that were achieved by the project’s end in 2024. The project entailed a cooperative, participatory approach among problem-owners such as water utilities or municipalities, solution providers, market-uptake partners, and partners from the social sciences, humanities, information technology, business development, and water sector outreach. Together, project partners created and implemented solutions in the development of models of governance, regulations, and policy, as well as technological and smart data solutions for more efficient and safe allocation and use of resources.

adelphi guided solution providers on the most efficient way to replicate their project results. Through stakeholder workshops and communication processes in Europe and beyond, the project team analysed target areas and markets and identified new application cases. Moreover, adelphi was responsible for the assessment of legal and institutional barriers to the implementation of the B-WaterSmart solutions, and on this basis made recommendations for appropriate guidelines and policies at the local, national, and EU levels. adelphi's activities were characterized by interoperability and cross-sectoral exchange, without which systemic change is not possible.