Smarter water quality monitoring for cities

The Ecotox Centre is participating in the new EU Horizon project UrbanM2O, which aims to develop efficient solutions based on monitoring and modelling to tackle water pollution in cities. What measures are suitable for reducing the risks? A consortium of 22 partners comprising companies, research institutions, public authorities, strategic platforms and local authorities is investigating this question through case studies in Copenhagen, Barcelona and Zurich.

The aim is to develop innovative methods for assessing water quality in cities and for drawing up risk-based plans for its management. To this end, new AI-enhanced monitoring techniques will be benchmarked against state-of-the-art methods for trace organic chemicals, microbial contaminants, and microplastics across urban water systems, including drinking water, surface water, bathing water, wastewater, groundwater, urban runoff, and sewer overflows. The project is led by LTU Denmark, Eawag and FHNW. The Ecotox Centre is contributing various bioassays for the effect-based assessment of water quality.