Smart Sensor Platform That Detects Water Contamination Before It Reaches Your Tap

Imagine your city's water supply has thousands of pipes, and something goes wrong — a chemical leak, a burst main, or contamination nobody notices until people get sick. Right now, water companies often find out too late. aqua3S built a system that combines underwater sensors, drone footage, satellite images, and even social media reports from citizens into one dashboard that spots problems early. Think of it like a smart alarm system for your entire water network — it catches threats from multiple angles and tells operators exactly what's happening and where.

What needed solving

Water utilities and municipalities face a growing threat of contamination events, pipe failures, and security breaches in their supply networks — often detecting problems only after citizens fall ill or complain. Current monitoring systems rely on limited fixed sensors and periodic manual testing, leaving dangerous blind spots. The cost of a single contamination incident — emergency response, public health fallout, regulatory penalties, reputation damage — dwarfs the cost of prevention.

What was built

The project delivered an integrated water safety platform combining in-pipe sensor networks, drone surveillance, satellite monitoring, and social media citizen feedback into a single early warning system. Key outputs include optimized threat detection algorithms, multi-source data collection hardware and software, visual content monitoring tools, social media crawlers, and a complete field-demonstrated system validated in real-world pilot conditions across 30 deliverables.

Who needs this

Who can put this to work

Quick answers

Who built it

This is a large, industry-heavy consortium — 24 partners from 11 countries with 46% industry participation and 4 SMEs. That mix signals serious commercial intent, not just academic research. The coordinator is CERTH, a major Greek research centre with strong technology transfer track record. With 11 industry partners alongside 4 universities and 4 research organisations, the project had direct input from companies that build, sell, and operate water monitoring systems. For a business looking to adopt or license this technology, the consortium includes potential implementation partners, system integrators, and sensor manufacturers who already understand the platform.

• ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXISCoordinator · EL
• ETAIRIA HYDREFSIS KAI APOCHETEFSIS THESSALONIKIS AEparticipant · EL
• THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETERparticipant · UK
• AZIENDA UNITA LOCALE SOCIO SANITARIA N 2 MARCA TREVIGIANAparticipant · IT
• TRILATERAL RESEARCH LIMITEDparticipant · IE
• NTT DATA SPAIN, SLparticipant · ES
• INSTITUT PO OTBRANAparticipant · BG
• SUEZ DIGITAL SOLUTIONSparticipant · FR
• SUEZ GROUPEthirdparty · FR
• FYZIKALNI USTAV AV CR V.V.Iparticipant · CZ
• SOFIYSKA VODA ADparticipant · BG
• DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL SAparticipant · EL
• SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITYparticipant · UK
• WATER EUROPEparticipant · BE
• UNIVERSITY OF STUTTGARTparticipant · DE
• MIRSENSEparticipant · FR
• EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTONparticipant · EL
• EGMparticipant · FR
• AUTORITA' DI BACINO DISTRETTUALE DELLE ALPI ORIENTALIparticipant · IT
• VIVAQUA SCRLparticipant · BE
• REGION OF CENTRAL MACEDONIAparticipant · EL