Project start: 1.10.2025.

Climate change is leading to an increasingly pronounced discrepancy between the availability and quality of water resources, with extreme events (floods, droughts, sea-level rise, prolonged heat waves) threatening the stability of water supply. Addressing these challenges requires an approach that integrates ecosystem principles, smart management, and the application of artificial intelligence and optimization methods. At RITEH, long-standing research within projects such as KLIMOD has demonstrated the effectiveness of combining supercomputing resources (BURA) with high-resolution numerical simulations to analyze open watercourses and flood areas. The VODAI project builds on this practice by introducing digital twins that simulate and predict water system responses to extreme climate events in real time. In addition to managing river flows, the focus is on addressing water losses in water supply networks, where Croatia, along with many other EU Member States, records a high average loss of around 60%. The proposed approach is based on developing AI algorithms that, through lab measurements and simulations, can detect leaks early and thus enhance the rational use of water. This fosters a comprehensive and sustainable approach that takes into account all aspects of management, from precise hydraulic models of open watercourses to the optimization of extracted water distribution within networks, while minimizing environmental and economic costs.
High-resolution numerical models and advanced AI methods are key components that enable the integration of results from watercourses with data from municipal networks into a single digital ecosystem. In the long term, project outcomes will contribute to the development of “smart” water management platforms, with the potential for further commercialization and broader application in regional ecosystems, in line with European and national priorities for green transition and digital transformation.