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12 OCTOBER 2022
10.00 – 11.30
Strategic session promoted by BFWE
Saturno Conference Room
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NEW EMERGENCIES: SECURING WATER AND ENERGY SUPPLIES IN AN EVER-CHANGING ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXT
The opening initiative of the events promoted by BFWE will focus on what currently appears to be the most challenging issue that engages the entire international community: how to ensure the continuity and security of water and energy supplies.
The topic will be tackled by initiating a discussion in which the protagonists of the public and private national and international organisations that, in various capacities, play a leading role in their sphere of operation will be able to explain how this challenge can be faced and overcome from the perspective of the ecological transition and the fundamental drivers that characterise it and on which BFWE is particularly focused: innovation and research, digitalisation and sustainability.
12.00 – 13.30
Sala Giove
TRANSITION AND TRAINING: AN ESSENTIAL PAIR
THE ROLE OF TRAINING IN THE PATH OF ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
in collaboration with 24ORE Business School
The ecological transition is an economic and social evolution of the entire international community that, in order to be effectively accomplished, cannot disregard a cultural change that must involve the world of public and private organisations, as well as rely on new generations capable of facing the challenges to which they will be called.
The round table entitled 'Transition and training: an essential pair - The role of training in the path of ecological transition', promoted by BFWE together with 24ORE Business School, the educational partner of the entire event, compares the world of companies, from different fields of activity, to understand what strategies and actions, from a training point of view, they are putting in place to be ready to face the path of ecological transition.
14.00 – 15.45
Venere Conference Room
BENCHMARKING AND LOSS REDUCTION TARGETS: WHAT EUROPE AND INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES SUGGEST
In partnership with Isle Utilities
The workshop presents international benchmarking and regulatory initiatives on the topic of water loss reduction in order to promote the adoption of best practice performance indicators to ensure a fair comparison between operators and an effective water service efficiency improvement process.
16.00 – 18.00
Venere Conference Room
DIGITISATION OF WATER SYSTEMS AND REDUCTION OF WATER LOSSES: OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE PNRR AND RISKS FOR OPERATORS
The ongoing transformation in utilities is now mainly driven by digitisation and innovation processes, which have now taken on a strategic role that goes beyond mere operational management.
In the water sector, the digitisation of infrastructures is accelerating and advanced ICT solutions, smart metering, big data and AI are enabling rapid and cost-effective improvements in network performance, reducing losses and improving customer services.
The workshop aims to analyse the new tools and management models brought by digitalisation, starting from the analysis of the 100 largest Italian utilities developed by Top Utility, through discussions with some of the major stakeholders and players in the sector.
The challenge for the future is to create increasingly efficient and integrated water network management systems that, on the one hand, optimise company management and, on the other, offer sustainable and quality services to customers.
13 OTTOBRE 2022
10.00 – 11.30
Venere Conference Room
WATER SECTOR INNOVATION: HOW TO FOSTER COLLABORATION BETWEEN RESEARCH, INDUSTRY AND OPERATORS
The workshop presents concrete collaborative initiatives between stakeholders in the water sector (utilities, universities, technology providers) to foster knowledge sharing, integration of technology solutions, development, testing and adoption of innovation in order to improve efficiency.
11.45 – 13.00
Venere Conference Room
NO DIG, A TECHNOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSE TO THE WATER CRISIS
Promoted by IATT
After the pandemic emergency and the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in 2022 Italy faced its worst drought emergency in twenty years.
The national and regional governments have deployed resources and planning to deal immediately with the water shortage in many areas of the country, and have also begun to envisage structural and long-term responses to an emergency that is growing stronger every year.
Reducing network losses (which have reached a national average of more than 40%), creating new reservoirs and connecting them to existing water schemes, and securing irrigation canals are some of the nodes on which urgent work has been decided, for which trenchless technology represents a prompt, effective and sustainable technological response.
The opening of the many construction sites that will be needed to overcome the water crisis, in fact, will have a significant and inevitable economic, social and environmental impact that can be mitigated, if not cancelled, thanks to the use of no-dig solutions.
The IATT conference as part of the Forum Accadueo will provide an in-depth look at the main urgencies to combat drought and the opportunities offered in this field by trenchless technology.
14.00 – 15.45
Venere Conference Room
THE STATE OF WATER SERVICES IN ITALY - CITIZENS' PERCEPTION AND INFORMATION
Surveys carried out to measure citizens'/households' perceptions and habits highlight the need to promote greater knowledge and awareness on the rational use of water resources and, above all, on the entire functional chain of the water service in certain areas of the country.
In recent years, citizens' behaviour has been changed by the realisation of the evident unsustainability of the consumption of water resources, which are becoming increasingly less available, and by the recent health emergency (COVID 19), which has changed daily habits, probably changing them permanently. The current challenges of the water system add up to the need to close the infrastructural gap accumulated over time: from adaptation to the effects of climate change, to the need to protect natural resources, regenerate them and pursue the circular economy, to the recent health emergency. In this changed context, water service operators are called upon to redefine their role, on behalf of citizens, as implementers of a new relationship between man and the environment. This opens up the opportunity for an alliance between operators and citizens: water service operators must consolidate the relationship of trust, understand users' needs, and assume a more marked role as implementers of sustainability and environmental protection.
On these aspects, it is necessary to strengthen the analysis and comparison between all stakeholders.
16.00 – 17.45
Venere Conference Room
DESALINATION TO MANAGE CLIMATE CHANGE
Promoted by Althesys
The recent severe drought in Italy has brought attention back to desalination technologies, with proposals and projects from numerous players and increasing pressure on policy makers.
Desalination is now an industrially mature, economically competitive and sustainable technology thanks to research and complementarity with renewable energies. Despite the economic and environmental advantages it can bring in various contexts, this technology is still not widespread in Italy. What is needed, therefore, is greater commitment on the part of politics, both national and local, and a favourable regulatory framework.
The workshop aims to take stock of this solution, analysing its technological, economic, environmental and regulatory elements, through discussions with some of the major stakeholders and players in the sector.
The challenge for the future is to quickly build desalination plants in our country as well, which will make it possible to go beyond emergency measures and provide a structural response to the worsening of drought phenomena and desertification due to climate change.
14 OTTOBRE 2022
10.00 – 11.30
Venere Conference Room
WATER RE-USE IN AGRICULTURE - REGULATORY, SANITARY AND INFRASTRUCTURAL ASPECTS
10.00 – 13.00
Notturno Conference Room
EFFICIENT USE OF WATER RESOURCES: THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHEMISTS AND PHYSICISTS
With ECM provision
11.45 – 13.00
Venere Conference Room
WATER USE IN INDUSTRY - REGULATORY ADJUSTMENTS AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
The workshop presents concrete collaborative initiatives in industry to foster the adoption of innovation, efficient use of water resources, energy saving, reuse of wastewater and sludge in a circular economy perspective as well as concrete collaborative initiatives to foster the adoption of innovation.
