2nd management meeting of HYDROUSA project in Nice

Organised by UT SEMIDE, the European project HYDROUSA – which aims to provide innovative solutions for Mediterranean islands in terms of water / wastewater treatment and management through closing water loops and boosting agricultural and energy profiles – held its 2^nd General Meeting on 31^st January- 1^st February 2019 in Nice at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen(C.U.M). The meeting brought together the project consortium, composed of 27 partners, together with direct stakeholders coming from French and other European Islands to discuss the implementation progress of the project.

 

REGENERATIVE & NATURE-BASED WATER SOLUTIONS

Water management in Mediterranean islands is currently fragmented and there are several barriers, which need to be overcome in order to close water loops and contribute towards the environmental and economic development of these regions. Mediterranean islands,in particular,face significant challenges in terms of water management and conservation. Water reserves are scarce, while the high touristic activities during the summer months stress the limited water reserves.

To overcome these challenges,the Horizon 2020-funded project HYDROUSA, which started on 1st July 2018 for a period of 54 months with a total budget of 12 Million euros, aims to provide innovative solutions for Mediterranean islands in terms of water/wastewater treatment and management through closing their water loops and boosting agricultural and energy profiles. HYDROUSA goes beyond the current water and wastewater management practices by adopting innovative, nature-based water management solutions for different types of water characterised by low energy footprint. These technologies will be demonstrated in six demonstration sites at full scale in three Mediterranean islands (Lesvos, Mykonos and Tinos).

HYDROUSA 2nd General Meeting in Nice

The project HYDROUSA held its 2nd General meeting from 31st January to 1st February 2019 in Nice at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen (C.U.M) organised by the French partner UT SEMIDE which is part of the consortium. During the general meeting, the consortium of the HYDROUSA project – which consists of 27 highly competent organisations involved in water management, agricultural activities, ICT and, business / marketing, dissemination / communication – presentedand discussed the status of the project after the first 6 months and prepare the next phases. The meeting was also attended by two Advisory Board members, Prof Michael Scoullos, Chair of GWP-Med and MIO-ECSDE (Greece), and Florent Chazarenc, Research Director at IRSTEA (France). They both appreciated the overall dynamic of the project, the positive energy of the 60 participants and they gave recommendations for future activities.

 

Furthermore, the project organized a stakeholder’s session during the afternoon of 1st February to collaborate with stakeholders from the replicability sites coming from Porquerolles and ZlarinIslands (Croatia) represented by SMILO network (Sustainable Islands network launched by Conservatoire du Littoral) and Elba Island (Italy). Furthermore, academics from Polytech – Cote d’Azur University joined the session.

 

Finally, transferability of HYDROUSA solutions will be demonstrated in Mediterranean and water stressed places in 25 early adopter cases in coastal areas and islands in Italy, Spain, Cyprus, France, Egypt, Croatia, Israel, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia and at least 6 water-stressed rural or peri-urban areasfrom Bulgaria, China, UAE, Australia, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia and Argentina. Institutional pathways, policy drivers, barriers and opportunities for the market deployment of the project technologies and services and for the use of the recovered resources will be detected, analysed and elaborated on.

 

*** HYDROUSA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776643.

 

Contact Person:

Eric MINO

UT SEMIDE director

Email: [email protected]

More information about HYDROUSA

Project objectives

Demonstrate that circular nature-based technologies work for supplying fresh water from non-conventional water sources

Demonstrate that circular nature-based technologies work for wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery, while creating further environmental and societal benefits

Show that the applied technologies are feasible within existing (legal) constraints and create economic return, hence create jobs and boost the economy

Make sure that the community and stakeholders are engaged in all parts of the value chain from the very beginning

Prove that skilled workmanship combined with modern ICT solutions create resilient and attractive long-lasting systems

Establish the water-energy-food-employment nexus and work with true cost accounting as tool for circular economy assessment

Replicate this concept to as many other places as possible with additional funding and spread the good news

To effectively deal with the demand side of unsustainable water consumption through the utilization of unconventional water resources in agriculture and for domestic use

 

 

Project partners

 

 

No.	Participant Organisation name	Main tasks in the project	Short name	Type	Country
1	National Technical University of Athens	Coordination, wastewater management, rainwater storage	NTUA	RTD	Greece
2	alchemia-nova GmbH	Nature-based solutions, agricultural innovations, water recovery	ALCN	SME	Austria
3	Brunel University London	Water, energy & C footprint	UBRUN	RTD	UK
4	Municipality of Mykonos	Local dissemination	MYK	OTHER	Greece
5	UniversitàPolitecnicadelle Marche	Monitoring, transferability and replicability plan	UNIVPM	RTD	Italy
6	Unite Technique du SEMIDE GEIE	Business concepts application, capitalisation	SEMIDE	OTHER	France
7	Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development	Health aspects of crops	HUSD	RTD	Egypt
8	ISIS Organic Food	Agriculture, productisation	ISOF	SME	Egypt
9	IridraSrl	Constructed wetlands	IRID	SME	Italy
10	Planet di Villa Alessandro & C. SAS	Solar desalination	PLANET	SME	Italy
11	European Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform	Dissemination and Communication activities	WssTP	NGO	Belgium
12	Catalan Institute for Water Research	Transferability to Spain, water loops, micropollutants	ICRA	RTD	Spain
13	AziendaServiziAmbientali	Transferability to Italian islands	ASA	OTHER	Italy
14	Agricultural and Environmental Solutions	ICT integration, crops, gamification	AGE	SME	Greece
15	Radtke Biotechnik	Plant consortia, greenhouse	RAD	SME	Germany
16	Tinos Ecolodge	Development/operation of demo water loops in eco-tourist facility	ELT	SME	Greece
17	Impact Hub Labs	Social impact, community interaction	IHA	NGO	Greece
18	Catalan Water Partnership	Transferability to Catalonia	CWP	NPO	Spain
19	Delaros OE	Development/operation of demo cases for rainwater harvesting	DEL	SME	Greece
20	Bioversum – Natured Inspired Solutions	Water capture, composting	BIOV	NPO	Austria
21	Plenum GmbH	Financing schemes, banks, venture capital, internal communication	PLEN	SME	Austria
22	MinarvaCostruction SA	Construction & maintenance of UASB/ wetland systems in Lesvos	MIN	SME	Greece
23	Lesvos Municipality	Local dissemination	LESVOS	OTHER	Greece
24	Municipality of Tinos	Local dissemination	TINOS	OTHER	Greece
25	AERIS TecnologiasAmbientales S.L.	Technology provider UASB	AERIS	SME	Spain
26	Satistica Ltd	Control and automation	SATIS	SME	UK
27	Memira Genesis Ltd	Website; replication in Cyprus; Data provision for models	MEMIRA	SME	Cyprus