Research Scope and objectives
DiWaS addresses the disconnection between the basin scale water resource management (WRM) and city scale sanitation and WASH planning, which leaves cities in the Global South less prepared to deal with increasing climate risks and human induced pressures. The DiWaS platform aims to bridge these long-standing gaps through a modular decision-support tool that connects SEI’s WEAP and WASH-Flows tools with GWSC-AIT’s Integrated Municipal Information System (IMIS), enabling cities to plan holistically, respond proactively to climate risks, and design inclusive, circular sanitation systems. The objectives of the projects are to i) integrate five modeling systems into one interoperable tool, ii) support risk informed planning through high resolution flood risk assessment and anticipatory actions in pilot cities in Nepal, iii) strengthen institutional capacity building for practitioners and, iv) support evidence-based investment prioritization for climate inclusive urban planning.
Donor, Partners, and Geographical scope
Implementation is led by a consortium of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the Global Water and Sanitation Center at AIT (GWSC–AIT), and Water Engineering and Management at AIT (WEM-AIT), each holding lead or support responsibility across the project’s different work packages. The geographical focus spans climate-vulnerable cities across the Global South, with the pilot project located in Nepal.
AIT role and responsibilities
AIT, through GWSC and WEM will primarily contribute to the development and operation of technical modeling and visualization components. WEM will develop and calibrate EPA SWMM and LISFLOOD-FP urban flood models, generate high resolution flood hazard maps and 3–7-day forecasts. WEM will also develop interactive GIS dashboards integrating flood hazards with population exposure, critical infrastructure, household vulnerability, climate scenarios, and return period information. GWSC will support access to municipal datasets, provide the technical hosting environment, and oversee deployment and alignment of the module within existing IMIS workflows.
Expected outcomes and impact
The project is expected to deliver an integrated Digital Water-Sanitation Nexus (DiWaS) platform that connects WEAP, SWMM, LISFLOOD-FP, WASH-flows, and the GWSC managed IMIS through an interoperable digital architecture. It will provide tool for water, sanitation, and urban flood risk assessment alongside dashboards for visualization, climate scenarios, and investment planning. The city pilot project in Nepal will the use of DiWaS for urban flood risk assessment for flood risk assessment and anticipatory action. A city pilot in Nepal will apply DiWaS to urban flood risk assessment and anticipatory action, using local hydrology, sanitation, climate, and investment data, supported by flood hazard maps, historical flood records, and exposure information. Overall, the project will improve planning and decision-making for urban flood risk, water resources, and resilient WASH services.
Lessons learned and way forward
As the project is still in the concept and design stage, initial lessons highlight the complexity of integrating five distinct modeling systems and the need for early alignment on data standards among SEI, WEM, and GWSC-AIT. The way forward is to finalize the interoperability framework and architecture blueprint before advancing to modeling, dashboard development, and capacity building in subsequent work packages.
PI: Dr. Mohana Sundaram Shanmugam
Faculty: Water Engineering and Management (WEM), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
