Megacities and Digital Water Risks

This webinar is supported by the following IWA Specialist Groups: Water Security & Safety Management, and Efficient Urban Water Management.

Cities of more than 10 million inhabitants share specific context and concerns: they have high environmental impacts, host renowned knowledge centres, and benefit from large and strong water utilities. Depending on their local context (climate, environment, legal, governance, resources and infrastructure…), they have developed their own specific strategies for adapting to their evolving context.

The creation of the Megacities’ Alliance for Water And Climate (MAWAC) was initiated in 2015 during the COP21 in Paris. In each of the 2 regions of Euro/North America and Latin America, megacities have established contacts and meet regularly for experience sharing and presentation of best practices and ongoing research in water management.

This webinar is seen as the first of a series presenting the work of MAWAC; it will showcase some of the most striking projects undertaken by major cities to enhance the cyber-resilience of their water systems and explore the challenges and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) developments.

Practitioners, academics and researchers, utilities, students, engineers

Following this session, participants will be able to:

• Learn about the Megacities’ Alliance for Water And Climate
• Discover the challenges participating Megacities are expecting regarding climate adaptation.
• Know how the European project ATHENA responds to the identified risks and trains the water utilities’ staff in the field of Prevention, Detection, and Mitigation of cyber-attacks.
• Learn the recent evolutions of cyber risk and how it has raised the threat level and the need for action.
• Understand the expected impacts of AI infrastructure development.

• Due to the growing urbanisation of the planet, the battle for adaptation to climate change will be fought in a significant part in large and very large cities. Local adaptation will therefore be more effective if engaged at the most relevant level according to the principle of subsidiarity. Time and efforts can be saved locally if solutions and best practices are shared globally: this is the main goal of the Megacities’ Alliance for Water And Climate (MAWAC)

• Water services of Megacities are not for the moment on the first line of the main targets of hackers, however with their high impact and visibility potential when hacked (including ransomwares), those utilities need to address these risks. Preparedness against cyber-attacks is not limited to prevention, and there is a lot to do for developing response, skills, knowledge, and attitudes for managing cyber threats. New training tools are also presented in the scenarios retained that will help emerge a sound cyber security culture within the water utilities.

• AI infrastructure is developing fast with ever increasing power and resources consumption: the consequences of this race have to be known by the largest number in order to push for the least regret solutions.

• Dr. Amit Chanan, W2SM SG chair, Australia
• Pr. Ilan Juran, Ret. Prof. NYU, USA
• Denis Penouel, International Cooperation Advisor SIAAP, Paris, France
• Pr. Nilo Nascimento, UFMG, Brazil
• Mary-Ann Dickinson, Dickinson Associates, USA
• Bruno Nguyen, W-SMART Honorary Pres., France