| Summary: |
The climate change prospects for the Mediterranean region point towards a general rise in temperature with more and longer periods of higher temperatures. Furthermore, changesin precipitation and distribution of water are expected. Indeed, the Mediterranean is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change and is predicted to become even warmerand drier than it already is. Forecasts indicate a Mediterranean temperature will increase between 2 to 4 ºC and a decrease in rainfall between 4% to 30% by 2050. In theMediterranean region, more than 70% of water resources are used for agriculture. The Mediterranean area is composed mainly of scattered small villages, where the conditions ofwater availability and distribution are poorly efficient. Water distribution systems in small villages typically have higher rates of water losses (around 5% or 10% higher) than in bigcities. The main reason is that the lower concentration of population makes water loss interventions less efficient. Hence, it is urgent to take action to preserve the water availabilityand optimize the water distribution in those regions. At a planning level, reducing water losses will contribute to reducing or stabilizing future water withdrawals and thereforeguarantee water supply partially. For this means, recent technological breakthroughs such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can allow achieving higherstandards of efficiency in water distribution systems. Thus, one of our objectives is to apply cutting-edge developments in control systems, real-time optimization, and AI to thewater distribution system to operate it close to the optimal while integrating efficient water harvesting technology, as here proposed, into the distribution system. One pillar of thiswork is the development of a smart water distribution system to optimize the water distribution and do real-time prediction of the water demand by the local requirements; also, thissystem should be able to reco  |
Summary
The climate change prospects for the Mediterranean region point towards a general rise in temperature with more and longer periods of higher temperatures. Furthermore, changesin precipitation and distribution of water are expected. Indeed, the Mediterranean is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change and is predicted to become even warmerand drier than it already is. Forecasts indicate a Mediterranean temperature will increase between 2 to 4 ºC and a decrease in rainfall between 4% to 30% by 2050. In theMediterranean region, more than 70% of water resources are used for agriculture. The Mediterranean area is composed mainly of scattered small villages, where the conditions ofwater availability and distribution are poorly efficient. Water distribution systems in small villages typically have higher rates of water losses (around 5% or 10% higher) than in bigcities. The main reason is that the lower concentration of population makes water loss interventions less efficient. Hence, it is urgent to take action to preserve the water availabilityand optimize the water distribution in those regions. At a planning level, reducing water losses will contribute to reducing or stabilizing future water withdrawals and thereforeguarantee water supply partially. For this means, recent technological breakthroughs such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can allow achieving higherstandards of efficiency in water distribution systems. Thus, one of our objectives is to apply cutting-edge developments in control systems, real-time optimization, and AI to thewater distribution system to operate it close to the optimal while integrating efficient water harvesting technology, as here proposed, into the distribution system. One pillar of thiswork is the development of a smart water distribution system to optimize the water distribution and do real-time prediction of the water demand by the local requirements; also, thissystem should be able to recognize abnormal consumption and problems. On the other hand, Mediterranean water resources are limited and often of low quality, fragile, andunevenly distributed in space and time. Access to safe drinking water is one of the United Nations' "Millennium Development Goals". Most approaches for generating new sources offreshwater focus on desalination techniques, even though it is expected that shortage of surface and/or groundwater will increase with the extension of arid regions, where oftenconsiderable amounts of water are present in the air that can be utilized as an alternative drinking water resource. The possibility of extracting water from the air has been knownsince ancient times. Cost-effective adsorption of atmospheric moisture and low dependency on ambient relative humidity and temperature must be the breakthrough characteristicsof an effective technology enabling the utilization of this invaluable water resource. Therefore, the other pillar of this work is the development of the mentioned water adsorptiontechnology to produce water from the air moisture through eco-friendly adsorbent and integrated process design. Indeed, our second objective is to develop an innovative concept toextract water from atmospheric air by adsorption processes, harnessing the recent developments in porous material science, and integrate it into the water supply systems, as themain or complementary water source. |