The 7th edition of the SmartCatalonia Challenge is with the Catalan Water Agency (ACA)

Companies, start-ups, and entrepreneurs: you can present innovative, workable, and adapted proposals until the 8th of January

This edition of the SmartCatalonia Challenge is in collaboration with the Water Catalan Agency (ACA). It raises 4 challenges detected in water’s ecosystem management to be solved with innovative ICT solutions.

The awards are:

• 1st place: 15.000 € + test pilot with ACA
• 2nd place: 5.000 €
• 3rd place: 3.000 €

Challenge 1: Water’s optimization in agriculture

How to get efficient water management to increase water availability?

The main water consumption comes from agriculture’s irrigation systems. A massive part of the water is lost due to evaporation and traditional irrigation systems, like aspersion and flooding. More efficient management would positively impact water availability.

This challenge aims to develop an innovative solution to improve water’s control in agriculture.

Challenge 2: Optimal maintenance of the water flow

How to improve efficiency in the control of water use and ensure optimal river flows?

ACA controls and manages the river flow to preserve the aquatic environment. The current system only identifies the flow “in situ”, and the control frequency is low. The correct flow throughout the year cannot be guaranteed.

This challenge aims to develop an innovative solution to improve water resource efficiency and provide management tools to guarantee optimal river flows.

Challenge 3: Treatment of pollutants

How to help to identify, trace, reduce, and treat pollutants in water systems?

Detecting “emerging contaminants” is one big challenge to solve in water management. The increasing demand for regenerated water claims for a better knowledge of these pollutants.

The goal of this challenge is to develop an innovative solution to ease the identification, traçability, and/or priority substances and emerging contaminants detected.

Challenge 4: Promote renewable energies

How to calculate and encourage using energy from renewable sources?

There are 522 Sewage Treatment Plants that demand big energy consumptions to clean wastewater up. ACA’s Energy Saving and Efficiency Plan aim to decarbonize the Sanitation focused on the 137 Plants that consume 93% of the total energy.

This challenge aims to develop an innovative ICT solution to monitor and process energy consumption.

This is the 7th edition of the SmartCatalonia Challenge. The challenges were presented in this online event. You can participate with your ICT solution here.