Context

European urban water systems must adapt to new pressures: emerging pollutants (PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceutical residues), health risks (pathogens, antimicrobial resistance), increasing urbanization, and extreme weather events.

Today, operators have few integrated tools at their disposal to anticipate and effectively manage urban water quality.

Objectives

QleanUP (Holistic approach towards high quality urban water) offers a comprehensive approach to:

• Develop innovative sensors for nutrients, heavy metals, pathogens, microplastics, and PFAS,
• Create soft sensors and digital twins capable of predicting water quality and identifying sources of pollution,
• Design data-driven risk management plans, integrating short- and long-term scenarios.
• Deploy an interoperable digital platform to support real-time decision-making.
• Involve citizens and local stakeholders in data collection and the co-creation of solutions.

Key innovations

• 3 new direct sensors to measure nutrients, heavy metals, and pathogens in real time.
• 10 soft sensors to estimate pollutants that are difficult to measure (PFAS, OMPs, microplastics).
• 2 digital twins and a standardized framework for urban water management.
• Open and modular FIWARE platform, compatible with European standards.
• Integration of explainable AI and digital ethics to enhance transparency and adoption.

Pilot cases

QleanUP will be demonstrated at 5 European sites:

1. Valais (Verbier/Entremont): water quality management in mountain areas with high tourist and agricultural pressure.
2. Valencia (Spain): improvement of drinking water treatment from multiple sources.
3. Athens (Greece): integration of Hadrian’s Roman aqueduct into a modern network for non-potable uses.
4. Amsterdam (Netherlands): monitoring the quality of wastewater treatment plant discharges for safe industrial use.
5. Plymouth (United Kingdom): management of pollutants from urban and road runoff.