What is water-smartness and how to assess it?

Abstract

Deliverable 6.1 – What is water-smartness and how to assess it? - aims at presenting the work fulfilled under Task 6.1 in WP6 towards the development of the B-WaterSmart Framework. Precondition to develop the framework is to understand what water-smartness is. Through an extensive literature review and inputs form the six Living Labs of the project, the multi-sectoral, multi-actor and multi-objective dimensions characterizing "water-smartness" have been emphasized, bringing the authors to conclude that more than "water-smartness", it was necessary to define what a water-smart society is. Having an agreed definition allows to move to the next step: its operationalization into an applicable water smartness assessment framework, the B-WaterSmart Framework. The report defines the methodology followed during the framework design and conception, it includes the key features of the B-WaterSmart framework and its high-level architecture. The main design driving factors have been identified based on feedbacks gathered from the LL owners. The report has been structured by first presenting the approach adopted to arrive to the definition endorsed (Chapters 2-4) and then, by using the definition, the preliminary theoretical concept and design of the framework are presented (Chapters 5 and 6). The deliverable also gives an overview of the next steps planned for the framework co-creation, so to further guide design and development.