DIGICAL

Digitisation of the Integrated Management of the Water Cycle in Heavy Rainfall

Implementation period:

January 2022 – August 2022

Coordinador

Participants

Description

On the occasion of abnormal rainfall, there are usually alterations in the quality parameters of the water collected for drinking water treatment, but in most cases the collection cannot be stopped and therefore the drinking water treatment plants are subject to stress. In addition, large flotsam and jetsam in riverbeds can damage pumping and catchment structures. As for sanitation systems, heavy rains and floods cause overflows, with possible effects on water quality that can cause harm to human health and environmental damage. DIGICAL is a cooperative R&D experimental development project that aims to improve the guarantee of drinking water catchment through the design and development of an early warning system (EWS) for floods. It is an innovative tool that includes measuring instruments and individuals interconnected in real time, combining data from different sources in an intelligent way and that is capable of improving and streamlining processes in flood risk management and decision-making in the event of a flood alert and that can be scalable to different environments. The area of interest for carrying out this experimental development project is the drinking water catchment areas near Manlleu and Torelló, where episodes of flooding of the Ter river cause floods that affect the economic activity of the area and alterations in water quality. The project foresees a pilot test that will allow adjusting the results of the hydrological/hydraulic models with real values that may occur in floods of the river Ter and/or episodes of rain.

Funding:

DIGICAL, with file number AEI-010500-2021b-24, is co-financed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (MINCOTUR) through the second call for AEIs of 2021 under the Next Generation grants and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.