As part of the France 2030 plan and more specifically the Innov'EAU call for projects led by ADEME, this €5.9 million project aims to establish a new standard: making water management smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable, by ensuring a reliable water supply for the population. The Prime Minister's office has confirmed the project's eligibility by granting €4 million in aid from ADEME. With a duration of three years, «Act and Innovate for Water» aims to produce a measurable environmental impact.

A unique advanced monitoring and visualisation solution for smarter water management

At the heart of the project lies the development of an innovative digital solution for advanced monitoring and visualisation, bringing together thousands of data points from sensors and software used by metropolitan utility services into a modular and interoperable water resource management platform. Structured in three layers: a data management base, business modules, and a real-time strategic dashboard, the platform is designed to reduce water loss, improve energy efficiency, and enhance network resilience against environmental challenges such as droughts and floods.

The platform will first be deployed across the entire Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis network. This large-scale pilot project will allow for the validation of the platform's capabilities and demonstrate its potential for expansion to other water services in France.

«Water utilities are under increasing pressure to strengthen the resilience of their networks and improve their operational efficiency. Using intelligent solutions such as data analysis, real-time leak detection modules and predictive maintenance tools enables them to meet these challenges proactively. With this project, Eau d'Azur is taking a bold step towards maintaining efficient, resilient and intelligent water management across its entire network. The integration of digital solutions such as Xylem Vue as part of the project is key to providing a holistic view of data to simplify and optimise network management, improving the safety and reliability of water resources. We are delighted, with this initiative, to be helping the Nice Metropolitan Area to become a pioneering region in France, using digital technologies to transform water management,» said Olivier Lamarie, Managing Director of Xylem France and Belux.

«Understanding water resources is a paramount issue for influencing their governance and usage. This ambitious project, combining academic and technological research, helps to address the challenges that global changes now pose to our societies. Knowing and identifying deep and shallow reservoirs, the exchanges between them, acquiring data, analysing it, and positioning it as control parameters in simulations – these are all scientific approaches that Université Côte d’Azur will bring to this high-stakes project, «Act and Innovate for Water». It is by acting and innovating together with regional stakeholders that we will succeed in meeting these challenges and providing solutions to manage this resource ever more sustainably and anticipate its future,» Jeanick Brisswalter, President of Université Côte d’Azur.

Project timeline and implementation

The «Act and Innovate for Water» project will be rolled out in ten development phases, with a focus on:

• Build a data management foundation, ensuring platform interoperability.
• Develop five business modules designed to meet the needs of water services in areas such as resource management, resilience, energy efficiency, and user awareness.
• Integrate a strategic dashboard for real-time insights into performance, carbon footprint, and water consumption.

A strategic partnership between three complementary water sector players for a major technological breakthrough

The «Act and Innovate for Water» project brings together the expertise of three strategic partners:

• Xylem, a leading global water technology provider, helping customers and communities build a more water-secure world, is the driving force behind this ambitious project.
• The Nice Côte d’Azur Metropole's water and sanitation authority relies on its modelling and information systems to meet hydrological challenges.
• Université Côte d’Azur, through the Géoazur laboratory and IMREDD (Mediterranean Institute for Risk and Sustainable Development), provides its expertise in geosciences and its Smart City Innovation Center (SCIC), a hub dedicated to R&D in environmental challenges and resilient urban development.