Data as the foundation for future-proof water management

Introduction

Effective water management starts with insight. Authorities have the crucial task of determining where supervision and measures are most needed: which companies pose the greatest risk, which substances require priority, and where the biggest chance of exceeding standards lies.

A lot of valuable information is available, but it is often fragmented across different organizations and systems. This makes it difficult to get a complete and up-to-date picture. As a result, prioritization and decision-making often become complex and time-consuming, while there is a strong need for clear and targeted choices.

Fragmented data: valuable puzzle pieces

Valuable information is collected in many different places about companies, substances, discharges, permits, and water quality. Each source contains part of the story, but as long as they are viewed separately, the picture remains incomplete. Some substances or companies fall out of view, and the link between discharges and water quality is insufficiently visible.

By combining this data and analyzing it in context, a more complete and powerful overview emerges. This enables risks to be identified earlier, priorities to be set more sharply, and decisions to be better substantiated. The available data thus becomes not just loose puzzle pieces, but a complete picture that truly supports policy and supervision.

The importance of a data-driven foundation

Without a central, data-driven approach, it takes a lot of effort to make well-founded choices. This leads to several challenges:

• Limited visibility of discharge flows — Supervision often focuses on larger, well-known companies. Without an integrated picture, other relevant flows remain easily overlooked.
• Difficult prioritization of risks — Fragmented data makes it hard to identify hotspots and sectors that deserve extra attention.
• Inefficiency in decision-making — When data is not directly available or comparable, it takes a lot of time to substantiate and coordinate decisions.
• Insufficient use of capacity — Due to lack of overview, capacity is not always used optimally. A data-driven foundation helps allocate resources more effectively, making supervision and enforcement more impactful without extra organizational pressure.

Conclusion

Connecting data is not a goal in itself, but a way to support the work of authorities more intelligently and effectively. Without a data-driven foundation and with fragmented data, prioritization and decision-making in water management remain unnecessarily complex.

The urgency is clear: by linking existing information and translating it into actionable insights, a solid foundation is created for future-proof water management. This not only gives authorities more control over discharges and water quality but also enables them to work with confidence towards achieving the WFD goals.