AI-generated summary
The global water crisis is no longer a distant threat but a pressing reality impacting billions. Currently, nearly half the world’s population experiences temporary shortages of clean, accessible water, and projections indicate that by 2050, two-thirds of people could face water stress for at least one month annually. Climate change exacerbates the issue by altering rainfall patterns and intensifying droughts, especially in regions like Spain’s Murcia, Andalusian Levante, and Catalonia, where surface and underground water reserves are critically low. Addressing this emergency requires a transformative approach centered on the digitalization of water management.
Technological innovations—such as sensors, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics—are revolutionizing water usage across agriculture and urban systems. Platforms now integrate satellite data, real-time environmental sensors, and AI to forecast droughts and optimize irrigation, reducing water consumption by up to 40% in some cases. Startups like Spain’s Sensing Tools and Andalusia’s Sensacultivo are leading efforts to implement these solutions, offering tailored recommendations and enhancing efficiency. Urban water networks also benefit from AI-driven leak detection and asset management, demonstrated by companies like Portugal’s Baseform and France’s Aganova.
However, technology alone is insufficient. Effective water management demands public planning, equitable access, and inclusive governance. Initiatives such as the Balearic Islands’ real-time aquifer monitoring pilot, funded by Next Generation EU, exemplify this integrated approach. Training programs like InspiraTech foster new sustainability-focused entrepreneurs, highlighting that the true revolution lies in combining advanced digital tools with sound policies, citizen engagement, and shared commitment to the common good.
In the face of an increasingly pressing emergency, technological solutions are emerging that transform the management of the most valuable natural resource
The The water crisis is not a future threat, but a reality that already affects billions of people. According to widely accepted projections, in fact, two-thirds of the world’s population could live in water-stressed conditions for at least one month a year by 2050, while today, nearly half are already experiencing a temporary lack of clean or accessible water. These data denounce the need to promote a profound transformation: the digitalization of water.
In Spain, regions such as Murcia, the Andalusian Levante and Catalonia they face critical situations, with reserves almost constantly well below average. And it’s not just surface water: underground aquifers, which are essential for agriculture and supply, are increasingly overexploited. At the same time, climate change alters precipitation patterns, intensifies droughts and multiplies extreme events.
As David Sedlak, a professor at the University of Berkeley, recalls in his speech at the Future Trend Forum dedicated to water by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, “a two-degree increase in the average global temperature would make climates like Spain’s resemble North Africa”. In the face of this emergency, the technological innovation becomes a key tool for anticipating, acting and optimising.
Technology to the rescue
Sensors, algorithms, and predictive analytics are beginning to redefine how we use this vital resource, from crop fields to urban grids. In this sense, one of the great
NASA, through programs such as SMAP and GPM provides global measurements of soil moisture and precipitation. These tools, which were previously reserved for scientific research, are now integrated into platforms accessible to farmers, municipalities and network managers
Startups like the Spanish one Sensing Tools, a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, applies this approach to the rural and urban world. Its system combines sensors, digital twins and artificial intelligence to improve water efficiency. According to the company itself, these tools can reduce water consumption by up to 40% in certain contexts.
In the agricultural world, digital solutions are gaining traction. One of the most concrete examples is Sensacultivo, an Andalusian startup that combines a mobile app with humidity and temperature sensors to offer personalized irrigation and fertilization recommendations. The result: up to 25% savings in water and fertilisers, and 99% loyalty among farmer users.
On the other hand, in September 2024, a Pioneering project to digitise traditional irrigation, using connected sensors and a mobile app, with the active participation of older farmers. An example of how technology can also revitalize ancestral management models, making them more sustainable without breaking their community logic.
It’s not just the field that’s changing. In the In cities, where up to 30% of water is lost due to leaks in distribution networks, artificial intelligence becomes an indispensable ally. The Portuguese company Baseform (BF Software, Lda) has developed a platform that combines AI, predictive analytics, and asset management to optimize urban networks, thanks to which several municipalities have begun to reduce losses and improve the efficiency of their systems.
Likewise, companies such as Aganova, which specialises in passive acoustic sensors, is helping to diagnose large-scale supply networks. In 2025, the company signed a contract with the French public company SEDIF to continuously evaluate the Paris network, one of the largest in Europe, using its Nautilus technology.
Alliance between business, citizens and politics
Beyond sensors and predictive analysis, there are technologies that expand the horizon of water availability. Desalination, traditionally expensive and unsustainable, is beginning to be transformed thanks to the use of renewable energies. Advanced wastewater reuse, through processes such as reverse osmosis or membrane bioreactors, makes it possible to close the water cycle in cities and industrial sectors. Even the capture of atmospheric humidity, through passive or active condensation technologies, offers solutions in regions with low rainfall but high ambient humidity.
However, it is not enough to deploy the full power of technology and digitalization must be accompanied by public planning, adequate regulatory frameworks and equitable access. In July 2025, the Government of the Balearic Islands launched a pilot system for the real-time sensorisation of high-flow wells. The devices will make it possible to know the volumes extracted, detect illegal uses and better manage aquifers. The first phase has been financed with 2.2 million euros from Next Generation funds. This type of solution allows a territory to be modeled as a digital water ecosystem, with automatic alerts, dynamic regulation and data-driven decisions.
Undoubtedly, digital tools can reinforce the sustainability, but they can also create gaps if they are only available to those who have the most. Hence the importance of combining innovation with public policies, citizen participation and inclusive governance models. The good news is that this new paradigm is attracting talent, investment, and vocations.
Programmes such as InspiraTech or Akademia, promoted by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, are training a new generation of entrepreneurs who see sustainability as not only a necessity, but a real opportunity for innovation and development. The truth is that the most powerful tool is the combination: sensors, AI and data forming an intelligent water system, integrated with regulation, public investment, social inclusion, talent and vision of the common good. That is the real water revolution.
