Due to climate change, we are increasingly confronted with wet winters, prolonged droughts and intense rainfall. This has a serious impact on local authorities and citizens, sewage operators, and water companies.

In case of a prolonged drought, the water supply security declines and the water level drops. Intense rainfall increases the risk of flooding and thus of sewer overflows, which negatively impacts the surface water quality. Quite a few Flemings have a rainwater cistern, but most lack insight in their own rainwater resources and consumption. 

Currently, we underutilise citizens' and local authorities’ rainwater cisterns. They serve as building blocks towards a more climate- resilient policy and water supply. With this project we want use existing technology to demonstrate how we can apply rainwater cisterns more effectively to make local authorities more resilient to extreme climate events.
 

Citizens install gauge in own rainwater cistern

We’re working on a communication process for participating local authorities and their citizens. Around 50 citizens will get the opportunity to participate in this project. They will receive a DIY-kit with a gauge to install in their rainwater cistern.

Next, De Watergroep will measure the filling rate of the private rainwater cisterns and also gauge the citizens’ willingness to have the level ‘controlled’ in the future. This information will primarily be used to create prediction models with real-time data. That data will in turn help us to better estimate peak water consumption.

Aquafin and Sumaqua will not only measure the filling rate of 5 lager rainwater cisterns at local authorities but will also ‘smartly’ control those cisterns. 
 

Building a prediction model

Precipitation measurements are important for all these activities. Therefore, in cooperation with Ghent University, a number of weather stations will be fitted with a pluviometer. All available data will come together on a data platform including a dashboard with user-friendly data visualisation, reporting and interaction. Furthermore, based on the collected data, Sumaqua will build a prediction model to extrapolate drinking water consumption over time and to a larger region.