April 9, 2024 Ι As water suppliers grapple with the challenges of future-proofing their systems against climate change and population growth, a novel solution has emerged. Austria, amidst demographic shifts and escalating climate impacts, faces mounting pressure on its water supply infrastructure. Traditional planning approaches have struggled to offer comprehensive forecasts. However, a pioneering team led by Daniela Fuchs-Hanusch at Graz University of Technology has developed a new solution: the EWA tool.

This free web platform, short for ‘Decision-making tool for water supplies taking into account change factors’ in German, empowers suppliers to explore planning alternatives across various climate, resource, and consumption scenarios in an engaging, gamified format.

Customizing water systems for future challenges

This enables smaller water suppliers, for example, to assess the suitability of their own network for different developments in ten-year increments up to 2055. They can plan the expansion or conversion of their network inside the tool and check whether the planned measures are sufficient or whether further steps need to be taken. Tutorial tasks are available to get familiar with the system – for example, building new wells and pipes for a community so that all residents will still have water in 2055.

In addition, users can put together their own challenges to run through various scenarios or incidents. A budget limit can also be created for these self-created tasks in order to work out the solution to the problem on the basis of the users’ own cost estimates. This allows water suppliers in particular to customise their systems and meet their own requirements. One challenge may be that the supply of water in two municipalities will no longer function in 2055 due to the increase in population and visitors, resulting in major bottlenecks in the event of a fire or incident. Using the EWA tool, practicable solutions can be worked out.

Integration of research insights into tool development