Our future water

TWENTY65: UK Grand Challenge Centre for Water

In England and Wales water is abstracted from approximately
445 lakes, reservoirs and rivers, as well as 2,102 underground sources [1]. Surface water and rivers account for 68% of the
UK’s fresh water supply [2].

Regardless of its use and its source, in the UK we rely on water treated
to drinking water standards.

This means that fresh water is treated to remove chemical contaminants
like iron and pesticides, microorganisms and particles like silt and is supplied from large-scale, centralised treatment plants.

Investigating real-time monitoring for water quality in catchments to optimise treatment.

Evaluating the potential to capture rainwater locally to provide stormwater management as well as an alternative water source.

Exploring how to increase the resilience and portfolio of water sources by modelling alternative sources alongside traditional ones.

The TWENTY65 research focused on how surface water catchments are likely to respond to climate change and population growth, specifically:

Monitoring, modelling, and predicting changes in catchments will enable tailored solutions for drinking water (such as treatment at local scales) making it more sustainable (through less chemical and energy use).

There is a whole ‘toolbox’ of SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems), which can improve how rainwater runoff is managed.

Modelling tools

We have enhanced current best practice RWH modelling tools to enable stormwater management benefits to be calculated in a way that is relevant to urban drainage engineers. This has included reducing the time step (because the storm events that cause the biggest drainage problems often last only minutes or hours). Complementary projects have also focused on developing tools to estimate runoff from green roofs and bioretention cells.

Metrics

When considering the impact of rainfall runoff, both the volume and the peak flowrate can be critical. We have proposed a set of metrics that assesses the impact of RWH devices across a broad range of relevant metrics [1].

SMART RWH

Traditional RWH systems suffer from a critical limitation; if the water stored within them is not utilised, they may be full at the start of a rainfall event and therefore cannot provide any further stormwater storage. We have explored the potential of utilising both passive and SMART RWH technologies which would ensure that the barrel is empty ahead of a forecast rainfall event [2].

Changing the way we do things is not just the responsibility of water utilities; collaborating with researchers from another TWENTY65 discipline, we have explored opportunities that best engage local communities in local flood risk management via MOCA and MAGIC.

Water Supply

Urban Drainage

We have promoted a more holistic/integrated approach to urban water cycle management to Government and the Water Utilities.

City as a water resource

Treating rainfall as a resource provides resilience to water supplies. Better management of rainwater at its source is also a key strategy for better stormwater management and flood reduction.

Integrated urban water management, extending from household to neighbourhood to catchment scale, with the best use of all available
water means we are able to develop sustainable water solutions
within the urban environment.

Vegetated SuDS, such as rain gardens, bioretention systems, stormwater planters and green roofs, form the basis of the ‘Sponge City’ concept which is rapidly gaining popularity around the world. In addition to providing stormwater management, these green elements provide widespread benefits to our urban areas, including improvements to urban water quality, enhanced landscape amenity for urban residents, and new habitats to support increased levels of biodiversity. Green urban infrastructure elements have been particularly valued as providing spaces to meet, exercise and escape during recent COVID-19 lockdowns.

Stormwater runoff has traditionally been managed via underground combined sewer systems which have finite capacity. During periods of heavy rainfall, these systems can lead to urban flooding and/or the spilling of polluted sewage into urban water courses. However, rainwater (from roofs, pavements, and other hard surfaces) can be captured and re-used via local systems, in a process known as rainwater harvesting (RWH).

For example at a household scale, using buildings as collection devices and routing the rainwater through guttering and downpipes and into storage tanks, it is possible to both reduce the volume of rainwater reaching urban drains and to save that water for local (re)use. This option is particularly appropriate for buildings with gardens or downstairs toilets that can utilise the stored water.

Adapting to changing catchments

The nature and amount of carbon in rivers depends on catchment characteristics.

Removing carbon in the form of dissolved (often seen as coloured water) and particulate (often seen as high turbidity) carbon is a critical step in the treatment
of drinking water. Understanding how future changes in catchments will impact both
the quantity and quality of our water supply sources will help to adapt our water systems.

Adapting to changing catchments

Adapting to changing catchments

Using digital twins to explore water futures

How do catchment characteristics affect water quality
(organic substances and micro-pollutants)? And the need
to advance current capabilities in catchment monitoring
and modelling to characterize treatability.

How does catchment management impact water flow and quality?

High frequency monitoring of water quality in catchments is necessary to predict
organic loads and catchment behaviour.

Novel data sets:

TWENTY65 captured data will be used to develop a carbon-based hydrological model for water catchments as part of ongoing research.

Using optical sensors that measure dissolved organic carbon, researchers carried out higher frequency sampling and monitoring, over a whole year, as opposed to traditional winter month only sampling to assess pesticide pollution in the Loddon catchment. This resulted in the development of a novel dataset to inform management strategies. Optical sensors are an effective tool for ongoing catchment monitoring.

Natural Flood Management (NFM) – Early results acquired using flow sensors and telemetry systems show that leaky barriers, a form of NFM, are successful at slowing the flow of rivers, which in turn is expected to reduce flooding downstream.

Bringing together local stakeholders in workshops to understand the feasibility and acceptability of NFM as a tool to reduce the risk of flooding lead to the co-creation of an online tool to explore and visualise future scenarios for landscapes for NFM.

Developed strong partnerships with a range of stakeholders to deliver the research outputs, driving cross-sector collaboration: South West Water, Bangor University, Affinity Water, the Environment Agency, Hampshire & Isle of White Wildlife Trust, Arcadian Ecology & Consulting, Pang Valley Flood Forum, Englefield Estate and
the Landwise Project.

Digital twins are very much at the cutting-edge of innovation
of modelling and simulation in the water sector. Although
the concept has been around for a number of years, the technology is now evolving quickly, thanks to advances in
cloud computing and pervasive sensing. Pervasive smart sensors are transforming the opportunities here.

Data from Urban Observatories, including those at Newcastle and Sheffield Universities are delivering huge amounts of publicly available, real-time urban data. This data, and other hydrological measurements, can be used to update model conditions in real-time, whilst cloud computing has accelerated our capacity to undertake simulations and scenarios.

Contributing to the ambitious mission to realise digital twins for the water sector.

Developing and using digital twins to undertake structured foresight and improve how we represent long-term change.

Developing and demonstrating representations of entire water system, creating new innovation opportunities, and transforming the way data is used to manage the water systems and improve outcomes for customers and the environment.

Exploring the potential power of digital twins for testing future scenarios:

Testing the resilience of water system against a major flood event within a digital twin, providing an excellent tool to aid management and planning.

Anticipate how changes to climate, land use and groundwater may impact upon resources, wastewater or infrastructure operations.

Assessing the effectiveness and impact, of river basin transfers under conditions of climatic change.

At the same time, TWENTY65 affiliated PhD research, funded by EPSRC and Northumbrian Water, is developing a digital twin of the micro-components of water usage.

Using digital twins to explore water futures

Preparing the water sector for the future is not an easy task. Water infrastructure is extensive and complex; its many constituent components and processes provide the water and sanitation services that sustains life, fuels agriculture and food production, supports our economy and is crucial to the natural environment.

Using digital twins to explore water futures

Adapting to changing catchments

Using digital twins to explore water futures

There are many things about this complex system that cannot be known, or easily predicted in advance. Over time consumer habits, climate, the built and natural environment all change. Taking decisions more confidently requires tools that capture interactions between different elements of this system, whilst also integrating the best available, and most up-to-date information.

Simply put, a digital twin is a virtual model of the real world that combines a digital representation of the system with data on properties and performance to enable
the testing of lots of different scenarios.

The key innovation of a digital twin compared to a standard model is a means of dynamically updating or adjusting the model in accordance with the data so that
the model represents the most up-to-date understanding of the system at that time.

This is an exciting time for the development of digital twins, with many more components and processes still to be developed. For example, the role of green infrastructure in flood mitigation is only partially understood. The Urban GreenDaMS spin-off project from TWENTY65 will provide research to enable the development of digital twins of green infrastructure.

We use vast networks of pipes to deliver our drinking water and take away our waste water. Buried water and wastewater networks in the EU have a combined length of approximately 6.1 million km; with an estimated replacement value of €3.5 trillion [1]. If we placed all the pipes used to supply our drinking water in England and Wales end
to end, they would reach to the moon.

The condition and performance of these vast pipe networks is vital to our
water services. But they are old and forgotten. Average known ages are around 70 years, but an estimated further 60% of pipes have no date laid information. They are likely to be even older, with records lost through different operational structures and transfer from paper to digital records etc.

In 2020, water companies reported the volume of water being leaked from
our ageing pipe infrastructure to be 2,954 million litres [2].

The scale and endemic nature of this pipe infrastructure make its use desirable and valuable for many water futures. To realise this it is essential that we transform our understanding of this infrastructure, ranging from accurately mapping its location to assessing its performance.

By considering the city as a water resource, implementing integrated sustainable drainage systems and rain water harvest we would reduce the amount of water we move.

We identified enzymes that will degrade the FOGs (Fats Oils and Greases) that cause ‘fat-bergs’ that block our sewers.

Our energy water research explored juxtaposing distributed infrastructure systems to deliver dual benefits, such as adapting national water transfer schemes so that they also provide pump storage solutions to help meet the energy supply demand imbalance as we move toward
more renewable generation.

Development and uptake of point of use treatment technologies would have an interesting impact, not necessarily altering how much water we move, but allowing distribution of a lower grade water, and hence less concerns about leakage.

The majority of the TWENTY65 research will transform how we move our water around, in different ways:

TWENTY65 research in this space was dominated by a key question:

Can we develop autonomous robots to replace human intervention in the monitoring and restoration of buried infrastructure?

© Copyright
John MacKenzie

Our research has targeted and inspired both water sector stakeholders and the robotics community of the game-changing possibilities and market for autonomous robots living inside our water infrastructure pipes.

The vision developed and articulated by TWENTY65
is for swarms of miniaturised autonomous, cooperative robots equipped with novel sensors deployed in buried pipe networks.

Water distribution and wastewater pipe infrastructures are ageing, resulting in regular failures requiring costly, disruptive, reactive maintenance.

TWENTY65 has shown how mobile robots could be used for autonomous, persistent monitoring of a buried pipe network, locating faults and reporting information enabling proactive
rather than reactive interventions.

New algorithms for in-pipe sensing would uniquely incorporate Lagrangian (mobile) rather than traditional Eulerian (fixed) based coordinate systems to process the previously unavailable autonomously collected data, to inform condition assessment and system performance.

Robotic autonomous systems will enable the possibility to maximise the capacity of existing infrastructure, proactively detect deterioration, increase safety and reduce downtime of city infrastructure and traffic disruption as well as generate data to drive better maintenance and investment models.

TWENTY65 has spun off into Pipebots. This is a £7.3 million EPSRC programme grant, involved four leading UK universities.

TWENTY65 research has developed new computer algorithms that simulate behaviour of multiple, cooperating robots within pipe networks.

We have developed and verified Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms that work in the feature-sparse environment of buried pipe networks.

These algorithms are inspired by multiple-insect intelligence, allowing robots to reliably navigate and inspect realistic networks.

We have defined the robotic performance to show how frequency of pipe inspection changes as a function of robot speed of motion, communication and number of robots.

We have demonstrated how new sensing technologies can measure beyond the pipe to detect voids and other indicators of a likely failure.

These autonomous robots can map our buried water pipe infrastructure so that water companies would know the exact location of 100,000s of kilometres of pipes, how they perform and the condition of the infrastructure. This technology enables us to drive timely interventions by predicting when infrastructure is about to fail.

The average person in the UK uses 142 litres of water
per day [1]. Everything we do also has a hidden water cost, for example, it takes water to generate electricity, make clothing and grow the food we eat. If we take into account hidden water usage, the average person in the UK uses
3,000 litres of water a day [2].

In the meantime, the UK has entered legal obligations to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 to mitigate the impacts of long-term climate change [3]. It is currently not on track to meet that target.

Instead of thoughtlessly consuming water, what if we changed perceptions of the value of water among consumers and contribute to minimising carbon emissions at the same time?

Can we align water and energy system interactions, and are those interactions possible at either the city or neighbourhood scale?

Can engaging the public to take action and become mini-managers of the water system help tackle the challenges faced by the sector?

The TWENTY65 research focused on how our water systems could be thought of and operate differently, to change the values associated with and derived from water systems. Research also looked at how we can mobilise the public to actively and positively consider and engage with water practices.

In combining aspects of our research it is possible to envision radically different sustainable water futures: utilising local water resources with point-of-use treatment with quality matched to use, thereby reducing our movement of water.

But such futures require radical shifts in our attitudes, behaviours and governance - how we use our water.

Future work will focus on bringing together the data from the new simulation tool and its outputs in an interactive way, to show demand, supply and emissions generations in real time,

showing variations across different hours of the day, and the winter/summer seasons.

Idealised integrated water and energy systems are able to satisfy the heat demand
for up to 63% of the time across a year with no carbon emissions, and reduce associated annual household CO2 consumption by 60%, when compared to the heat demand being satisfied by natural gas.

Adopting an interlinked system at the typical neighbourhood scale (1,000 households) could help the UK meet its carbon emission obligations by reducing the country’s CO2 emissions related to domestic heat use by 18%.

Domestic heat demand contributes a relatively high proportion of the UK emissions for a single well-defined source. Hot water use alone, contributes £228 to the average annual combined energy bill and emits 875kg of CO2 per household per year [1]. The UK Government has identified that domestic heating is one of the areas that can still make a measurable contribution to the overall UK carbon emission reduction target.

The model is an idealised system in which the operation of distributed water infrastructure has been used as an energy store/source to dynamically supplement other renewable energy sources.

UK Water Utilities also have carbon emission reduction targets, but the current solutions mostly focus on reducing leakage and generating energy at the Wasterwater Treatment Plants (WWTP). TWENTY65 focused on storage solutions that exploited the capacities of our cast water pipe infrastructure.

TWENTY65 research has developed a simulation that uniquely integrates:

Solar and wind energy generation (electric).

Heat energy recovery from urban drainage systems (heat).

Energy storage and release (potential) from drinking water reservoirs through turbines.

Gas back-up energy generation.

To find the optimal energy generation mix to minimise the annual total carbon emissions while meeting hourly domestic heat demand at a community/neighbourhood scale.

TWENTY65 research explored the use of water systems to provide energy storage. As we move to more renewable energy generation it is essential that we find sustainable energy storage solutions to meet the increasing energy supply demand imbalance.

TWENTY65 showed how the heat and potential energy capacities of water systems could be exploited to deliver this, adding value to the existing systems.

Opportunities for learning (both within and between water service providers) are not currently maximised because of the lack of systematic evaluation of mobilisations. In particular, there is a lack of consideration of the cumulative impact of different mobilisations on public understanding of the water system, and on water-related practices undertaken by the public. Government and regulators need to work to support water service providers in collaborating with local organisations to plan, deliver and evaluate mobilisations that are more systematic.

TWENTY65 researchers have designed a database and interactive map of water engagement projects across the UK. The resource will help better understand what effective partnerships between the water industry and the public can look like. Organisations are invited to contribute projects
to the database.

Many organisations across the water sector are mobilising citizens to manage water challenges, but their efforts are seldom critically evaluated to enable learning to be shared. Providers need more expertise to make mobilisations more interactive to ensure they produce sustained change.

Mobilisations are a form of engagement where the public is asked to take new or different action to improve water service outcomes. Examples include river wardens, pesticide management, property level protection from flood risk and pollution prevention through careful use of toilets and sinks.

These initiatives are often referred to as behavioural change. Mobilisations are increasingly used across the water sector. However they are often a last resort when technical solutions are not possible. It is essential that both technical and social change and innovation are integrated and simultaneous.

In the UK, we treat all our drinking water to better than food grade standards, using large-scale centralised treatment facilities. This is irrespective of the final
use, even toilet flushing and irrigation.

Centralised treatment of drinking water and wastewater provides economies of scale but requires large amounts of chemicals and energy and relies on significant pipe infrastructure to move water around. As water resources come under increasing pressure due to climate change, deterioration of water quality is likely to require even larger energy and chemical inputs to achieve the current standards.

Identifying game-changing treatment, tailored for specific requirements that could provide more sustainable alternatives to the current centralised treatment systems.

Advancing treatment technologies that reduce energy and chemical usage.

Exploring treatment technologies, alone and in combination, that can be used to recover resources from water and wastewater sources.

The opportunities offered by these novel approaches are varied and wide ranging. TWENTY65 researchers focused on:

Considering treatment at the point of need, rather than at a centralised location, opens the possibilities for local and alternative water sources to be more fully exploited and for creation of different grades of water quality to better match the intended use.

Instead of viewing wastewater as an unwanted product that requires disposal, wastewater should be seen as a valuable resource, with treatment designed to optimise resource recovery.

We developed a proof of concept treatment using electrochemical oxidation to break down pollutants like ibuprofen followed by selective ion exchange for recovery of the components.

These types of targeted treatments offer the opportunity to consider recycling of organic components (like the molecules that are used in production of pharmaceuticals), as well as inorganic components like metals.

Treatment processes for removal of contaminants

Treatment processes for removal of contaminants

Treatment processes for removal of contaminants

Micropollutants like pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and industrial chemicals pose a risk to health in our drinking water. Targeted removal of these substances will be an important part of drinking water treatment, regardless of where that treatment takes place.

If we could also recover substances of value during the targeted removal of contaminants from drinking water, reuse of those substances leads towards a circular economy where waste is not just discarded.

Our research developed the first stable graphene oxide membrane in water, which allows for the benefits of graphene to be applied to water treatment membranes for less fouling and greater throughput of water. We have also investigated a number of pre-treatment alternatives to improve the performance of membranes, ultimately leading to a more sustainable treatment technology.

Development and evaluation of novel membranes

Membranes are one of the most flexible and scalable water treatment technologies currently in use, with applications from seawater desalination to under-sink potable water treatment.

However, one of the key problems with membranes is fouling, which increases the pressure required to push water through and therefore pumping energy needs. For a more sustainable application of membrane technology, novel membranes that resist fouling and allow for high throughput will be required.

Our research into the biological components of fatbergs
in sewers has demonstrated that unique groups of bacteria inhabit these deposits of fats, oils and greases in sewers. Harnessing these bacteria as a warning that fatbergs are forming, or even as a biodegradation treatment technique, could lead to better sewer system performance with
fewer blockages.

In potable water systems, pathogens pose a risk to human health if they gain entry into the system through defects, bursts, or other contamination. With the development of low power and affordable UV LED disinfection systems, it could be possible to manage pathogens within water networks before they reach consumers.

Water travels for long distances in urban pipe networks, which gives time for deterioration in drinking water quality and buildup of blockages in sewer networks. Considering travel time in pipes as an opportunity for treatment could deliver better performance in water networks.

Opportunities to

improve water systems

Credit: Lord Belbury, CC BY-SA 4.0

Opportunities to improve water systems

Opportunities to improve water systems

Diagram of potential UV installations in a water distribution system

TWENTY65 initiated and delivered disruptive innovation in eight areas that are key for water futures, inspiring the sector and demonstrating what is possible – showing how the sector can innovate and what is necessary to deliver water systems with positive impacts for people, society, the environment and the economy.

Use the links below to learn more

Pathways to different

water futures

Consideration of further change in the pressures, context and responses then led to cycling between states on the continuum.

There is no end point for the perfect water system, it will and must keep evolving and changing.

Our response must be to make our systems and behaviours open and receptive to this. Long term thinking, planning and investment is key - strive for a ‘no regret’ decision.

We need to reconsider the one-size-fits-all approach of large
centralised infrastructure.

Our water infrastructure is ageing and failures will become more common without significant investment. The water sector must decide how to address this. Now is the time to consider the options, together as a sector, and to make purposeful decisions about how to achieve a future with resilient and adaptable water systems. We must
not assume that centralised infrastructure is the answer, even in mega cities.

There is no single silver-bullet solution: we need multiple silver baskets

While the sector needs advances and developments in a range of thematic areas such as those developed in TWENTY65, individual innovations will not be enough to deliver the step-change required. There is no ‘one size fits all’ technical or social solution that can ensure that water services are resilient and adaptable to the pending future challenges.

The real innovation challenge lies in understanding and demonstrating how combinations of socio-technical solutions can be deployed to deliver resilient and adaptive water systems. These combinations, or ‘silver baskets’, will need to be tailored to local needs and context and work synergistically with existing infrastructure.

All the pressures, context, situations and responses that we considered led us to water futures that where on a continuum from centralised to decentralised, despite the variety and complexity of the pathways and pressures leading to them.

We explored numerous possible water futures, and the pathways to them. This was not to try and identify ‘the solution’ - as this does not exist; rather it was to identify common technical and social components of the futures and features of the pathways. By identifying these we can select pathways and the options that open up the most and the more desirable future, hence increasing resilience and capacity for adaptation.

All our co-created water futures coalesced onto a continuum depending on the degree of (de)centralisation.

Our co-creation events used a wide range of futures tools, considering a diverse spectrum of drivers, pressures, context and situations. The shared perspectives and understanding gained by the cross-sector stakeholders at these various events was significant, and as with most futures the shared journey immensely valuable.

Our stand-out finding from all of these was that all futures mapped
onto a continuum between fully centralised and decentralised.

Luxury centralised water systems supply water, wastewater and drainage services in a centralised way, with treatment taking place at city-scale and pipe networks to reach users.

Taking advantage of advances in automation, sensing, new pipe materials, real-time control, tailored treatment reacting to influent water quality changes and other related socio-technical solutions, these systems are transformed from deteriorating and underperforming to resilient and proactive in delivering high quality water services.

One pathway that might lead
to Luxury Centralised Systems:

The lack of current investment in water infrastructure leads to centralised system failures, with excessive times of customer outage, poor water quality and environmental pollution among other adverse impacts. Government or similar top-down intervention forces the necessary investment and promotion of advanced socio-technical solutions to deliver the Luxury Centralised Future.

Another pathway that might lead
to Luxury Centralised Systems:

As the public gains environmental awareness and desires change to meet carbon reduction targets, they are willing to pay more for water services that support environmental and climate outcomes. The investment from this bottom-up intervention permits adoption of the necessary advances to deliver the Luxury Centralised Future.

A wide variety of innovation combinations are possible between the extremes of Fully Centralised and Fully Decentralised Water Systems. The theme in these examples is challenging our incredible behaviour of using better-than-food-grade product to flush away our waste.

For example, community scale water that takes advantage of rainwater harvesting and grey water reuse for non potable purposes is an appealing response, reducing the demand on the centralised system so that it can be invested in to only provide potable water.

Dual-grade distribution presents an appealing extension or alternative to this. A second, new high-grade system to deliver potable water only for potable grade use.

Alternatively, the response might be to accept deteriorating performance of the existing infrastructure and changing catchments to only treat and distribute centrally to a lower quality with robust reliable under-the-sink treatment for potable use.

These futures may seem far fetched. However, examples already exist, such as a dual supply in Tucson, Arizona and off-grid communities in Scotland, while numerous private properties have boreholes, under-the-sink reverse osmosis and septic tanks.

One of the biggest challenges to the UK water sector is to embrace the concept that one-size-fits-all water services is fundamentally not fit for the future. The challenges faced are too great. We need to evolve our thinking, tools, technologies, approaches and in particular assessment and evaluation tools to devise combinations of social and technical innovations that provide the best ‘silver baskets’ in different situations.

Rainwater harvesting

Sustainable drainage systems

Low footprint natural treatment

Non-potable distribution

Self-healing pipes

Inspection and repair robots

Ubiquitous sensors

Point of use treatment

Ubiquitous sensors

Smart metering

Greywater recycling

Education about risks of unsafe water

Dual-purpose centralised storage and stormwater management

Education about risks

of unsafe water

Social considerations

Equity of water service

Education about risks

of unsafe water

Engagement with the perceived ‘yuck factor’ of reused water

Retraining of tradespeople

Engagement with the perceived ‘yuck factor’ of reused water

Retraining of tradespeople

Engagement with the perceived ‘yuck factor’ of reused water

One pathway that might lead to fully
decentralised systems:

An active campaign raising public awareness of pending water crises and public environmental concern shift perceptions of the value of water, a transformation similar to those that have occurred around CO2 and plastics. This drives individuals to take responsibility for their own water. A response-driven, bottom-up approach driven by people’s willingness to pay and invest locally.

Possible continued pathways from fully
decentralised systems:

As climate change continues, droughts and floods become even more common and extreme. Local storage and treatment solutions can’t cope with the durations and volumes necessary. This drives movement towards increased scale, such as community scale solutions. Or, the differential impacts of climate change across the UK leads to centralised investment in a national grid of water and hence back towards a luxury centralised system. Investment in such a system could be unlocked by integrating pump storage to help meet the supply demand energy crisis that is pending as renewable energy generation increases.

“A couple of years back, it was a TWENTY65 report and a conversation with Caroline Wadsworth that were a turning point in how I personally thought about innovation in the sector and were a big inspiration to developing the idea of the Ofwat innovation fund. It goes to show the impact of collaboration, and how coming together to talk about how we progress forward can lead to the beginnings of change.”

John Russell

Senior Director of Strategy and Planning, Ofwat

The findings are also available as an industry-facing guide, that sets out the route map for water sector collaborative innovation.

Conway, Tony; Birdi, Kamaljit; (2021): Collaborative Innovation In the Water Industry: How to Make it Happen. The University of Sheffield. Report. https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.14635551.v1

In the water industry the need for collaborative innovation is increasing, yet our understanding of how best to do this is lacking.

Collaborative innovation is defined as ‘the generation and implementation of a new and beneficial product, service or process involving two or more organisational partners e.g. a water company plus an external partner’. We conducted a number of research studies (including a systematic literature review and interviews with many water sector stakeholders) to identify major barriers and facilitators of collaborative cross-organisational innovation initiatives in the UK water industry.

The breadth and scale of the required transformations mean that traditional siloed approaches will not deliver sector-wide innovation. Co-creation and collaborative working from a wide range of stakeholder perspectives is needed, from early research through to implementation and operation.

There is an appetite for collaboration across different stakeholders but we need better tools and approaches alongside a culture change across the sector to achieve our future goals.

A truly interdisciplinary series events, the must-attend UK water conference presented cutting-edge theory, facilitated and stimulated discussion, and demonstrated how collectively we can translate ideas into practice, inspire collaborative working throughout the sector and push the boundaries of current thinking.

The conference featured the Social Science of Water Network Event, which brought together practitioners, social scientists and engineers to a collaborative, stimulating and community–oriented environment where solutions were co-created.

There were over 600 attendees, with keynote speakers including Rachel Fletcher – CEO of Ofwat, Angela Smith MP and James Richardson – Chief Economist, National Infrastructure Commission.

The TWENTY65 series of Thought Leadership Clubs provided an interdisciplinary mechanism that collectively owned, defined and directed co-production of research and innovation. The Club initiated and stimulated a journey for transformative change through open membership to any interested parties.

We drew on our collaborative innovation theme of research and the Clear Ideas that we developed and enhanced contributed to the true cocreation of a shared vision for the water sector.

The Water Innovation Hub (The Hub) was a unique element of the TWENTY65 consortium. It was key to making TWENTY65 greater than the sum of its parts, integrating and delivering transformative transdisciplinary research.

Bringing the sector together

UKRI Grand Challenge funding enabled us to undertake disruptive research and thinking, positively challenging conceptions and influencing sector-wide attitudes and culture.
The impacts are many times the sum of the individual thematic areas. UKRI Grand Challenge funding uniquely allowed us to develop and deliver the TWENTY65 Water Innovation Hub, supporting and driving cross-sector collaboration as a centre for meeting, exploring, questioning, testing, integrating, networking, documenting and dreaming about the future - together. Support of such Hub functions was essential to realise the full potential of challenge-led research and innovation advances and ultimately to deliver a sustainable and secure water future.

The Hub took a unique role in connecting the best innovators, businesses, researchers, regulators non-profits, and policy-making talent across the water sector to facilitate and foster responsible innovation.

Numerous invited talks at conferences/events and present evidence to government

>£55M follow-on funding ranging from small consultancy to programme grants

Bridging the gap between academia and industry

Accelerating the uptake of innovation across the sector

A place for openly exchanging, training, networking, exploring, meeting, testing,

questioning, documenting and dreaming together

Dr Alex Riley

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

University of Sheffield

Dr Ben Krueger

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

Imperial College London

Prof Catherine Biggs

Lead - Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

University of Sheffield/Newcastle University

Christine Sefton

Mobilisation as an innovation

University of Sheffield

Dr Emilie Grand-Clement

Adapting to changing catchments

University of Exeter

Emily Dalby

City as a water resource

University of Sheffield

Dr Fatima Ajia

Mobilisation as an innovation

University of Sheffield

Hamza Askari

City as a water resource

University of Sheffield

Dr James Porter

Collaboration for innovation

University of Sheffield

Dr Jeanette Garwood

Collaboration for innovation

University of Sheffield

Juliet De Little

Mobilisation as an innovation

University of Sheffield

Kaiyan Zhou

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

Imperial College London

Lindsay Hopcroft

Water Innovation Hub Administrator

University of Sheffield

Dr Michael Bell

Adapting to changing catchments

University of Reading

Richard Molyneux

Robotics

University of Sheffield

Dr Rizwan Nawaz

Foresight and Integration

University of Sheffield

Teng Liu

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

Imperial College London

Tom Kelly

Adapting to changing catchments

University of Reading

Prof Tony Dodd

Robotics

University of Sheffield

Dr Vitor Martins

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

University of Sheffield

Dr Wenzheng Yu

Demand-based technologies for tailored treatment

Imperial College London

Prof Joby Boxall

TWENTY65 Principal Investigator
and Technical Director

University of Sheffield

Prof Vanessa Speight

TWENTY65 Managing Director

University of Sheffield

Caroline Wadsworth

Water Innovation Hub Manager

University of Sheffield

Dr Laura Roberts

Water Innovation Hub Outreach and Dissemination Manager

University of Sheffield

Dr Emma Westling

Research Associate and Impact Co-ordinator

University of Sheffield

Lindsey Farnsworth

Water Innovation Hub Administrator

University of Sheffield

The TWENTY65 consortium has undertaken exciting and ambitious scientific and engineering research to develop the complex socio-technical solutions needed to address key challenges facing the water sector, with a focus on the United Kingdom.

While this interactive document summarises the learnings and technical advances developed through our research, its primary function is to provide a holistic overview of how our interdisciplinary social and technical research, combined with our success in bringing academia, industry and other stakeholders together, can pave the way for a new future in the water sector.

The content we present is not representative of water systems everywhere in the world but we believe the solutions, learnings, and advances we put forward contain inspiring elements for all. It presents an opportunity to interactively explore a range of possibilities and options, sparking and inspiring change for water systems everywhere.

The provision of clean, safe drinking water in much of the world is one of the most significant public health achievements of the past century – and one of the foundation stones of a healthy society.

Current one-size-fits-all solutions

Provision of water and sanitation in the UK is via centralised water systems built during the mid-19th Century to address the public health challenge posed by serving ever-growing cities.

Centralised Water Management:

Ageing infrastructure

In the UK, water services are based on legacy infrastructure systems; the country lives off Victorian engineering. These systems are ageing and deteriorating and will require unprecedented investment to be fit for the future. Leakage of water from ageing infrastructure wasted 2,954 million litres of water per day in 2020 [1], yet the costs of replacing that infrastructure seem insurmountable.

Population growth

The global population will reach 10 billion by 2050, and potentially 16.5 billion by the end of the century, accompanied by a dramatic increase in demand for water and food. Increasing urbanisation will put added pressure on water networks and infrastructure – 66% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050.

Climate change

Higher temperatures and more extreme, less-predictable weather conditions driven by climate change are increasing the risks of flooding, droughts and water stress. This has a negative effect on the availability and distribution of rainfall, snowmelt, river flows and groundwater.

Fresh water is crucial, not only for drinking and household needs, but also to feed a growing population, industry and energy supply. Groundwater is the most extracted raw material in the world – and supplies are dwindling [2].

The application of traditional technology-based solutions alone is not
the way forward to solve the grand challenges facing the UK water sector. A suite of ‘tailored solutions’ is required to address these challenges, by combining measures to suit specific circumstances and constraints
to achieve flexible and adaptive water systems.

Tailoring water solutions does not mean lower-quality water services for different sectors in society; rather, it means fair, bespoke solutions appropriate to variations in the natural environment, population
distribution, and legacy infrastructure.

To achieve the envisioned transformation requires time and a step
change in the way in which the UK water sector identifies, develops
and applies innovation.

Stakeholders need to move out of traditional silos and collaborate to creatively coproduce knowledge and action. Academics, scientists and engineers must work across disciplines and stages in the knowledge production process to deliver the complex socio-technical solutions needed to meet the challenges facing the UK water sector.

Collaboration is especially relevant in a sector that is not accustomed to working together and does not have a shared vision of how to meet its grand challenges.

Continued success in addressing the grand challenges is only possible
if all players in the water industry work coherently.

Large-scale infrastructures (e.g. reservoirs, water transfers, piped systems, centralised treatment)

Often distant from the communities they serve

Top-down governance

Ownership: Government and/or private sector controlled

Prof Joby Boxall

Principal Investigator
and Technical Director

Prof Vanessa Speight

Managing Director

“The TWENTY65 programme is making a real impact in terms of addressing real industry challenges and opportunities. We have
made some excellent collaborative links with some of our own strategic research route maps in UKWIR, especially relating to themes such
as ‘achieving zero leakage and zero interruptions to water supply’.”

Steve Kaye

CEO UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR)

“I’ve been impressed how the TWENTY65 programme has progressively raised the profile of multi-disciplinary multi-stakeholder approaches to the water sector’s challenges. The dialogue across regulators, water companies and academics has helped each side increase its understanding of the other, which is crucial in developing real world insights and solutions: for example, coming together to workshop UKWIR’s Leakage Big Question roadmap.”

Richard Laikin

Director RL Strategy Consulting Limited

The programme of research focused on eight socio-technical research themes, each of which individually posed disruptive questions, demonstrated the potential for, and led transformation. However, they were not viewed or treated in isolation. When considered in combination across urban water systems they form the basis of ‘silver baskets’ of broader tailored solutions, able to work synergistically with existing and new infrastructure to achieve transformative impact.

Adapting to changing catchments

How will future changes in catchments impact upon our water supply systems? Can we advance current capabilities in catchment monitoring and modelling to characterise treatability of different source water and define tailored solutions that are resilient to climate, land use and pollution changes?

Foresight and integration

Can we develop future water scenarios to assess social and technical solutions to address the challenges faced?

The Hub

Enabled collaborative, responsible innovation through roadmapping for the water sector, knowledge capture and dissemination, and facilitation of co-production across the water supply chain.

City as a water resource

Can we close the urban water cycle by integrating stormwater management with water supply management? Focusing on integrated urban water management from a household, to the street through to the catchment level, can incorporating dual function rainwater harvesting and sustainable drainage systems offer a key solution?

Minimising carbon emissions through synergistic water-energy systems

What can we do to better align water and energy system interactions? Can we provide evidence on the feasibility of introducing integrated water-energy systems? Could this be done at either city or neighbourhood scales for energy recovery/generation?

Understanding the potential for public engagement to improve water services

How can collective working help trigger effective change? Can we define best practices for engagement to better support water stakeholders in changing their actions and behaviours?

Inspecting and restoring water infrastructures using robotic autonomous systems

Can the water industry benefit from technologies advanced and developed in other industries? Can we develop autonomous robots to replace human intervention in the monitoring and restoration of buried infrastructure?

Collaboration for innovation

Can we identify the key factors that influence multi-stakeholder collaboration across the innovation process to overcome barriers and accelerate innovation? How can we encourage the development of responsible innovation?

Tailoring treatment using demand-based technologies

Can future water scenarios that assess social and technical solutions be developed to aid in the addressing of upcoming challenges?

Acknowledging that there is no single ‘silver bullet’ technical solution for the water sector’s biggest challenges, to carry out disruptive research on a suite, or ‘silver basket’, of potential social and technical solutions. When put together, the ‘silver basket’ of bespoke solutions can be deployed at the point of need, tailored for specific scales, stakeholders, physical conditions.

To deliver a mechanism that will engage the water sector widely to co-produce knowledge, generate a roadmap, and enable multiple avenues of research, dissemination and innovation. Thereby bringing our vision of tailored solutions for positive impact to fruition and securing the long term sustainability of innovation in the sector.

Undertaking exciting and ambitious scientific and engineering research to develop

transformative socio-technical solutions

Driving re-visualisation of water service provision to achieve flexible, resilient

and adaptive systems

Partnering to revolutionise the way innovation is delivered in the water sector

The TWENTY65 consortium, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), ran from 2015 to 2021. The programme brought together eight interdisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers, working across six research institutions in the United Kingdom. The goal was to develop flexible and synergistic solutions tailored to meet the changing societal needs across the UK water sector.

TWENTY65 paved the way for a sustainable water future for all, delivering solutions to achieve positive impact on health, environment, economy and society. Inspired and enabled by research, the aim was to collaboratively and coherently accelerate innovation and promote a dynamic, energised water sector.

This work was achieved by focusing on three key objectives:

TWENTY65’s legacy

Creating an open, collaborative, stimulating and community–oriented environment where solutions are co-created is fundamental to the work of TWENTY65. It is this novel approach that has made TWENTY65 so successful in terms of its reach, influence and integration.

While the original technical themes and overarching consortium will no longer operate past 2021, perhaps the greatest success story of TWENTY65 is the range of different collaborations and partnerships that will live beyond the current consortium. Here we highlight some examples that best represent the TWENTY65 ethos. You will also find additional examples throughout this interactive.

Pipebots aims to revolutionise buried pipe infrastructure management with the development of micro-robots designed to work in underground pipe networks and dangerous sites.

Pipebots is a consortium of four UK universities and is supported by TWENTY65 and EPSRC. Pipebots has 36 industry and academic partners.

The Urban Green DaMS project will improve our understanding of how rain gardens can help alleviate urban flood risk.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield University and Newcastle University. It is supported by eight industry partners, three academic partners and is funded by EPSRC.

The CLEAR IDEAS framework has been developed by the award-winning work of psychologist Dr Kamal Birdi as way of more effectively generating and implementing of new ideas.

Over 16 national and international organisations have participated in Clear Ideas workshops, including Ofwat. In one particular example, a Clear Ideas co-production workshop for UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) increased the zero leakage Routemap from 24 to 33 project areas, including a new funded project on customer-side leakage approaches delivered by the Water Research Centre in 2020. This engagement allowed UKWIR to create a research agenda more able to represent and meet the needs of water sector stakeholders.

MAGIC will explore whether flood resilience measures can be enhanced through greater empowerment of local communities to provide and manage water storage features either on public land or on their own properties.

MAGIC is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, The Living with Water Partnership, Hull and East Riding Timebank. The project is funded by NERC.

Grant number: EP/N010124/1

Policy influence with Defra, All Party Parliamentary Water Group, Ofwat, EA, DWI, DWQR (Scotland)

Large companies such as Kier, Stantec, Murphy, RPS, Water Companies

Small and Medium companies like ATI, Metasphere, EMS, HR Wallingford, CEH, MET Office, BGS

Startups e.g. Datatecnics, Resomation, Energy Box, Greener Waste, Tecta PDS

Associations like Civil Engineering Contractors Association, British Water, Future Water Association,UK Water Partnership, WIF International organisations including Global Water Council, Imagine H2O, PUB, German Water Partnership, Water Start, Blue Tech

Research Hosted academic visitors from Japan, Korea, Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia Meetings, advice, small research and consultancy projects, collaboration, lab tours, brainstorming innovation, participation in company workshops

Invaluable strategic advice and wider perspectives were provided by:

Tom Flood, UK Water Partnership, Chair

Louis Brimacombe, Independent (formerly Tata Steel)

Issy Caffoor, Independent (formerly Yorkshire Water)

Margaret Cobbold, Independent (formerly Veolia Environmental Trust)

Tony Conway, Independent (formerly United Utilities)

Sarah Hendry, DEFRA

Richard Laikin, Independent (formerly PWC)

Andrew Lawrence, EPSRC

David Leon, Nationwide

Jess Phoenix, DEFRA

Philip Sellwood, Energy Saving Trust

Dave Tickner, WWF

Invaluable support and direction was provided by:

Tony Conway, Independent (formerly United Utilities), Chair

Jon Brigg, Yorkshire Water

Issy Caffoor, Independent (formerly Yorkshire Water)

Chris Digman, Stantec

Peter Drake, WIF

Michael Elwell, Independent (formerly Aliaxis)

Georgina Freeman, EPSRC

Andrea Gysin, Thames Water

Tony Harrington, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water

Paul Horton, Future Water Association

Hans Jensen, UKWIR / UK Water Partnership

Dani Jordan, WWF

Chris Jones, Northumbrian Water

Steve Kaye, Anglian Water / UKWIR

Maria Calderon Munoz, EPSRC

Tony Rachwal, UK Water Partnership

Jon Rathjen, Scottish Government

Adrian Rees, Arup

Paul Rutter, Thames Water

Ronan Palmer, Ofwat

Ruqaiyah Patel, EPSRC

George Ponton, Scottish Water

Martin Shouler, Arup

Bob Stear, Severn Trent Water

Tony Williams, British Water

Mark Worsfold, South West Water