project

Complete picture from source to tap

This project is creating a blueprint for the development of digital twin applications and services in order to establish a complete picture from source to tap. The applications and services consist of the digital twins themselves (models), as well as support components such as data flows, data validation tools or dashboards. The blueprint highlights the technical factors involved in the creation of digital twin applications and services; the requirements for data management; and the changes required in the organisation (roles and processes). That is all needed keep the increasingly complex system of digital twins (and the related tools) manageable. At the same time, complexity is necessary to meet the need of water utilities to get the relevant information to the places in the organisation where decisions are made, transcending traditional domain boundaries.

Deliverables

The project will result in four concrete deliverables:

  1. a review of existing digital twin developments and implementations at the water utilities;
  2. a protocol for linking digital twin applications and services, particularly between different domains (source, production, distribution);
  3. a data management roadmap to enable the utility-wide integration of digital twins;
  4. a framework for standardised and effective collaboration in order to enable the utility-wide development, integration and adoption of digital twins;
  5. a demonstration of items 2-4 in a case study.

This means that the question of security (including cybersecurity) is not covered by a specific work package. There are a number of reasons for this: the budget does not allow for it, and security/cybersecurity must be an integral part of the other areas (in work packages 1-3); the current “secure IT-OT convergence” project includes an extensive and explicit focus on this area, and lessons learned there can be applied to the scope of this project.

These deliverables will allow water utilities to target their digitalisation activities more effectively, making them more efficient, flexible and sustainable. Above all, they will be in a position to make the right decisions that will help them later when more and more digital twin applications and services need to be integrated in a complex system. At the same time, this will accelerate the implementation of digital twins at the utilities even now. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of digital twins (and digital transformation in general), the outcomes of this project will affect all the stakeholders of digital twins: from ICT, software developers, data engineers, data scientists, modellers and end users such as hydrologists, process technologists and operators.

Utilities could apply the deliverables of the project directly to make their digitalisation activities more future-resilient; facilitating consultation with the field in co-creation sessions means that this project includes practical implementation. Depending on the outcomes, this could lead to a new code of practice relating to the development of digital twin applications and services.