Acknowledging water as a critical resource throughout Europe, five EDA Member States – Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Ireland - have recently committed to participating in a novel water management project which seeks to examine water management on defence lands from a hydro-informatics, conservation, sustainability and technological innovation point of view.
The Smart Blue Water Camps (SBWC) project was proposed and developed by Greece who will lead it supported by the EDA. The project seeks to assess existing military water management systems and installations on European soil. For the first phase of the project, the five participating Member States will conduct analysis of the water infrastructure on a chosen military site in each Member State through a series of workshops in order to define the ‘Smart Blue Water Camp Blueprint’. Interventions will be identified and listed according to suitability, cost and impact on the ‘Smart Blue Water Camp Blueprint’. Phase 1 will take place over a ten month period. Thereafter, phase two of the project will involve implementation of the most suitable identified interventions.
Water management
Existing civil and military water management infrastructure is facing pressure due to climatic changes and limited new investment. There are two major trends developing in water management technology: ‘smarter’ and environmentally integrated infrastructure. Military installations are among the least acknowledged elements in water cycle management.
Military camps have great potential for improvement due to their unique characteristics such as significant water and energy demands, significant drainage and wastewater flows, generally aging and inefficient infrastructures, in some cases a need for more autonomy from centralised water and energy systems and a transient population of end users, all of which have a detrimental impact on water management.
The opportunities that are presented by military camps in terms of improved water management include: (1) space abundance for the deployment of water demand management technologies e.g. sustainable draining systems, rainwater harvesting & recycling systems, green roofs & walls, (2) similarity of military installations from an upscaling perspective and transferability of best practices and knowledge and (3) the long term commitment of military from a continuation perspective.
Background
The Smart Blue Water Camps project is launched within the EDA’s energy and environment programme. Centred on four main themes: data collection and analysis, energy efficiency, alternative energy, and defence sustainability, the programme identifies and builds a portfolio of activity that spans the capability, armaments and research & technology perspectives with a view to sharing best practice and enabling collaborative activity wherever possible.
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