ResiWater – Innovative Secure Sensor Networks and Model-based Assessment Tools for Increased Resilience of Water Infrastructures

Water is a fundamental resource for human and economical welfare and modern society depends on complex, interconnected infrastructures to provide safe water to consumers. Water Distribution Systems (WDSs) are constantly exposed to deliberate or accidental contaminations or may undergo a partially or full system collapse. This could be caused by terrorist attacks, cascade effects, major technical accidents or natural disasters.

The French-German cooperative research project ResiWater, which consists of end users, research institutions and industrial partners, aims to develop tools to prepare water utilities for crisis management and enhance their resilience against major threats. For the realization novel enhanced sensors and secure sensor networks, detection methods and monitoring tools, self-learning monitoring tools, robust simulation models, vulnerability and resilience assessment tools are to be developed.

The subproject, in which Fraunhofer IGB cooperates with Fraunhofer IOSB, pursues the following three main steps for increasing the resilience of drinking water infrastructures:

1. Automated biosensors
2. Self-learning module for monitoring tool and detection of abnormal events
3. Concepts for secure sensor networks and risk analysis of IT infrastructures in drinking water infrastructures

We would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for funding the project "Resiwater", promotional reference BMBF-13N13690.