# Water-Tight IoT-Just Add Security
## 2 Background
### Digitalization of the Water Sector (DWC Example)  
The DWC project aims at creating digital solutions to link water management in the physical world to the digital spheres such as sensor networks, real-time monitoring, machine learning, etc. Twenty-four partners from ten countries work together to integrate a subset of the digital solutions in the cities of Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Sofia. The objective is also to support water utilities and municipalities in improving water quality, returns on investment and public information about water-related issues [8]. Water supply belongs to critical infrastructures and, as such, must follow industry-specific standards and/or regulations. When integrating digital solutions, the utilities communicate those requirements to the technology providers, which have to meet these regulations. The data from the DWC solutions are fully processed outside the utility systems and fed into internal databases and/or numerical models. However, because internal IT security standards might have prevented the use of cloud solutions, standalone applications and on-premise servers were sometimes requested. The project provides devices, typically sets of specific sensors, mobile applications or web platforms which, to a large extent, build on top of existing solutions. Sensors themselves are mostly off-the-shelf, proprietary or open-source. Within DWC, new sensor assemblies are tested, they are applied to new setups within the water and wastewater infrastructures, and new ways of data transfer and processing and visualization tools are developed. For any sensor implementation, it is important to distinguish between sensors that are directly connected to the SCADA system to monitor and regulate operational conditions, and independent installations in online or offline mode with data transfer into the databases and reporting systems connected to the office world. Data transformation and processing is accordingly performed either fully automated within the SCADA system or manually to semi-automated when reading, recording and processing the office world data. OT and IT systems are usually not directly connected, but data are pushed from the operational systems to central databases, where they are stored and accessed for decision making. A major challenge for urban bathing water management is to ensure the safety of users and comply with regulations. The European Bathing Water Directive (BWD) [9] uses the concentration of fecal bacteria to assess the water quality. Currently, bathing water surveillance in Europe is usually based on monthly grab samples analyzed in approved laboratories. This means pollution events are only detected by chance, as most of them will happen between sampling times. The ALERT System, developed as part of DWC, is a sensor for real-time bacterial measurements. The device is fully autonomous, remotely controllable, installed in-situ and allows rapid quantification of E.coli or enterococci concentrations [10]. This eases the job of operators who can rely on more accurate and up-to-date data to decide whether or not to open bathing sites for instance. Another challenge for water utilities is the management of drinking water wells. Well rehabilitation represents a major element of annual investments and expenses to maintain service quality. This maintenance is based on the condition and capacity of the well, obtained by performing pumping tests and CCTV inspections. The corresponding solution developed in DWC is a mobile application allowing the collection of data from sensors deployed in the wells. Having these data readily available will greatly reduce operating expenditure by accelerating maintenance procedures and enable focus to be shifted onto the wells with the highest needs. It is the perfect example of data being used to improve decision-making [11]. Digital solutions developed as part of the DWC project are built using a wide range of technologies, making it difficult to generalize anything.