AquaFlanders wants to develop a tool that uses several available and useful data sources to locate leaks and illegal use of water (non-revenue water or NRW) and detect other problems in the existing water distribution network. This meets the Blue Deal in which the Flemish government aims for an Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) of 0.5 by 2025.

In preparation for this project, an NRW ecosystem has already been launched, in which the drinking water sector wants to join forces with suppliers and knowledge institutes to allow innovative solutions to evolve faster towards market-ready solutions.

Currently, Flemish water companies already use algorithms for leak detection and localisation . However, these focus on flows and water pressures in main pipes. The aim of this PIO project is to develop algorithms that address other and varied data sources.