Digital Twins as market infrastructure for Europe’s Water Resilience – 16^th April, Brussels

The European Water Resilience Strategy sets the strategic direction to strengthen Europe’s adaptability and long-term sustainability in managing water resources. A central dimension of this ambition is the deployment of digital twin technologies to enable data-driven governance, integrated water management, and informed investment decisions.

The Horizon Europe project IDEATION operationalises this vision by laying the foundations for a Digital Twin of Europe’s inland waters, rivers and estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, snow and ice, groundwater, urban water, and coastal water, designed to interconnect with the European Digital Twin Ocean (DTO), forming a coherent digital representation of the hydrosphere.

On the morning of 16 April 2026 in Brussels, IDEATION will host its Final Cross-Country Multi-Stakeholder Forum, bringing together the European Commission, digital innovation projects, utilities, researchers and technology providers. The Forum will present IDEATION’s roadmap, discuss governance and interoperability challenges, showcase real-world implementation — including the Barcelona metropolitan use case — and align European digital water initiatives under a common strategic direction.

In the afternoon, Water Market Europe (WME) 2026, organised by Water Europe and supported by IDEATION, will translate the morning’s strategic dialogue into market action. WME positions Digital Twins, Data Governance and AI not just as technological tools, but as emerging market infrastructure and instruments capable of accelerating innovation deployment, de-risking investment, and strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and capacity to achieve a climate-resilient Water-Smart Society and Economy.

To find out more about the event, visit the official webpage.