Due to climate change, we in Flanders are increasingly experiencing long dry periods in the summer. As a result, less water is available for the production of drinking water while more water is just consumed. Matching supply and demand is an important task of the drinking water companies. With the rollout of the digital water meter, a new data source becomes available to develop a water consumption forecasting model and thus gain more insight into water demand.

Three drinking water companies in Flanders (De Watergroep, Farys & Pidpa) are joining forces to develop a smart, data-driven water consumption forecasting model. They are working together with Digitaal Vlaanderen to make the data from the digital water meter available in a Flemish water data space.

This PIO project investigates on what scale in time and space the digital water meter data can be made available in a water data space, to combine with other data sources such as meteorology, hydrology, spatial planning, .... to develop a water use forecast model and other smart applications.