Concrete use cases in the Water Data Space project create new value

The Water Data Space project has developed a number of value-adding use cases – benefiting businesses, startups, SMEs, utilities, municipalities and other stakeholders

Use cases as a working tool

Over the past year, the Water Data Space project group has been working with various use cases. Use cases are a widely used concept to drive software development in order to gain a better understanding of user needs and the ability to test solutions faster in complex projects.

To learn more about value creation, technical design and management of a Water Data Space, the project has worked with three specific use cases that help make the complex work of designing a data space more practical and operational. The individual use cases were selected through a process of interviews, workshops and data camps. Potential cases were identified and subsequently prioritized using a prioritization matrix, where value creation potential was one of the most important selection parameters.

The Water Data Space project has brought together professionals from across the ecosystem, and it is Systematic, in collaboration with project partners, that has led the work on the selected use cases described here.

Use case 1: Automatic reporting saves two months of work

The purpose of this case was to facilitate the annual reporting of utility data to the authorities, which today is not a standardized process for water utilities. Standardized queries can reduce the burden of finding and aggregating data to be submitted to the authorities by water utilities. At Herning Vand, which contributed to the case study, it currently takes two months of work annually to collect and report data to the Utility Secretariat.

The project’s Proof of Concept (PoC) focused on pipe registrations, and an application was developed that could collect the required data from Herning Vand’s database. The application presents an overview to the utility employee, who can then send the data directly to the Utility Secretariat, saving several months of work each year.

Hear more about the case below