https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1377-6575
While water is one of the most vital resources—essential for energy, food, security and human survival—water systems worldwide are under stress. The World Health Organization estimates that as of 2021, 2.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, while 4.2 billion do not have sufficient sanitation. One-quarter of the world’s population lives in countries facing extremely high water stress, where demand regularly outpaces available supply. Floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, exacerbating existing water risks. Needs for energy and food intensify pressure on water systems within the context of urban and population growth. Water also acts as a threat multiplier, precipitating or escalating political conflicts. For example, the lack of access to water has aggravated political tensions in many countries worldwide. Overcoming these complex, interconnected challenges will not be easy. It will take bold commitments with innovative solutions, clear and measurable targets, dedicated finance and collaboration across borders. In 2023, with the UN-Water conference, the international community understood the urgency to tackle global water challenges with a holistic approach.
Since the 1980s, over the last 40 years, the Hydroinformatics paradigm formulated in 1991 by Michael B. Abbott has emerged with the technical development of computer resources associated with scientific improvement for numerical simulations. If the initial stage was very much related to computational hydraulics, Hydroinformatics has gradually integrated and encompassed social and technological dimensions to provide efficient solutions to water-related problems. With the exponential development of digital solutions, the Hydroinformatics paradigm, concepts and methods, based on a wise combination of scientific hydraulic knowledge and technological abilities/methods, have matured and are now seen as the needed innovations for addressing complex water systems and tackling significant challenges.
Water systems can be segmented into three primary domains, each corresponding to distinct activities and business operations:
Protection of natural water-related environments and ecosystems.
Natural hazard mitigation and disaster prevention.
Water uses.
The first domain encompasses actions required to assess and guide the environmental impacts of development proposals and projects related to specific water uses. The domain also covers all conservation actions of water-related ecosystems.
The second domain is focused on water-related natural hazard mitigation actions. Floods, droughts, water-borne and vector disease outbreaks, famines, landslides and avalanches are the processes covered by this domain. Every year, disasters related to meteorological, hydrological and climate hazards cause a significant loss of life and set back economic and social development by years.
The last domain addresses the added influence of human activity on the water cycle. Generally, “water uses” encompasses the consumption by agriculture, industry, energy production and households. This also includes instream uses such as fishing, recreation, transportation and waste disposal. Urban areas are of prominent importance in this domain considering the increasing economic migration processes towards smart cities (a challenging target for large cities), in the context of climate change impact and ageing urban water infrastructures. The combination of the three processes generates higher stresses on water resources distribution, urban water drainage and sanitation. Each of these uses is directly linked to specific activities and processes that are potential targets for deploying Information and Communication solutions.
According to the defined water domains, water uses represent the largest field where digital solutions can be developed and implemented. In the coming years, new approaches for water management will emerge accompanied by the deployment of solutions and their gradual integration into a global Information System (IS). This will ensure interoperability and minimise redundancy. Realising this approach will necessitate close collaboration among professionals from various fields to achieve the needed holistic approach. Obviously, the introduction of technological solutions will impact massively water services and will induce a drastic transformation of business processes. The digital transformation of the water sector is still in its early stages. It must encompass numerous dimensions before reaching the expected holistic paradigm able to tackle water challenges efficiently. Over the last few years and with the massive development of computational resources and the deployment of affordable sensors, Digital Water has emerged as a pivotal concept. Many water professionals now recognise the value of digital twins as a means to synthesise data, provide a comprehensive overview and ultimately control physical devices through their digital representation.
The Digital Water Journal aims to create a collaborative platform where visions, ideas, strategies, scientific results, innovations, technical experimentation results, and standards from water sciences and technological domains will be shared and discussed. Over the past three decades, through numerous activities, a community has been created and has continuously questioned and advanced the key concepts of Hydroinformatics through numerous activities. The current journal is the expression of this community. It is managed in a new and collaborative way with the ambition to publish high-quality and innovative contributions that can benefit a growing audience and stimulate innovations for tackling water issues.