Smart water management is acknowledged as a key component of the solutions to address climate change impact and secure water resources availabilities in the context of Sustainable Development Goals. Over the last decades, digital solutions have become an essential part of water management. Numerous initiatives have been developed to explore hybrid and new AI modeling with concrete approaches such as digital twins. The ambition is to provide water managers with tailored IT solutions that can be implemented in their current management system. These developments raise a wide range of questions in terms of sensors’ approach, interoperable open data models, reference architecture, and cybersecurity that are presented in this chapter. Additionally, IT innovation, as groundbreaking as it may be, requires additional dimensions such as governance, capacity building, and economics to ensure its adoption by water managers. These aspects are also presented in the latest sections of this chapter.

D7.4 describes the innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management procedures within DWC. It introduces the concepts of Intellectual Property (IP), the types of protection rights as well as the IPR rules in the project. It summarizes the key procedures introduced in the Grant Agreement and Consortium Agreement documents. Finally, it explains the role of the innovation and IPR manager and the detailed activities that will be carried out to foster innovation and secure the protection of our key results. Compared to the previous versions, the IPR repository has been updated.

This bachelor thesis examines the influence of precipitation events and urban stormwater runoff on the concentrations of persistent and mobile substances (PM) in Berlin's surface waters. The analysis includes concentrations of 69 substances from four substance groups (VOCs, PAHs, PFAS, pesticides) that were recorded at 24 surface water sampling sites. Using precipitation data from 32 locations in Berlin, the concentrations were categorized according to dry weather, rain, and heavy rain influence. Statistical analyses for comparing these categories were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn tests. Additionally, the concentrations in the surface waters were compared to those in Berlin's stormwater runoff using box-whisker plots.

13 of the investigated substances show significantly higher concentrations during rainfall or heavy rain events. This can be attributed to the input of these substances into surface waters through rainwater runoff. Particularly PAHs show notable concentration increases in Berlin's surface waters during precipitation events. PFOA and PFOS, two representatives of the PFAS group, exhibit a more complex behavior pattern depending on precipitation events. During light rainfall, their concentrations in surface waters decrease, while heavy rain events lead to increased concentrations. For pesticides and VOCs, the results are less conclusive, partly due to limited data availability.

This analysis provides valuable insights into the transport of various substance groups within the urban water cycle. The findings expand the scientific basis for developing targeted protection measures for urban waters.