The China Subgroup of IWA’s Digital Water Programme organised the 2025 Digital Water Innovation Summit. Yufeng Guo, Aijie Wang, Hong Li and Dongjian Xu share the highlights.
In the digital era, when emerging technologies are revolutionising traditional industries, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) have emerged as defining trends and key drivers within the water sector. Aligned with the vision of IWA’s Digital Water Programme (DWP), the China Subgroup of IWA DWP organised the 2025 Digital Water Innovation Summit, held on 5 June in Shanghai, China. Jointly hosted by the Shanghai Investigation, Design and Research Institute (SIDRI) and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, China, the third edition of this distinguished series commemorated the establishment of the China Subgroup on 5 June 2023.
Since its inception, each Summit has remained rigorously focused on the core themes of digital water innovation and the water sector’s ongoing digital transformation. Convening renowned scholars, senior executives, technical experts, innovators and policymakers, the event has unparalleled influence within China’s water sector, attracting more than 300 participants and hosting 24 expert presentations.
Highlighting the influence of the Summit, Dr Yufeng Guo, Deputy General Manager of Three Gorges Smart Water Technology, and Co-Chair of the China Subgroup, said: “This event has become an essential platform for empowering water utilities to accelerate the adoption of intelligent management solutions, while fostering cross-border collaboration in digital transformation between Chinese and global water sector leaders.”
The Summit featured deep-dive discussions across three specialised sub-forums. One was on water utility digital transformation, focusing on strategic roadmaps, organisational change, and value realisation for utilities embracing digital maturity. A second was on smart pipe networks, examining real-time monitoring, integrated plant-station-network operation, online numerical modelling, predictive maintenance, and asset resilience for buried infrastructure. The third was on AI + water, exploring cutting-edge applications of AI, machine learning (ML), and big-data analytics across operations and resource optimisation.
Digital dialogue
Opening the Summit, Dr Kala Vairavamoorthy, IWA Executive Director, shared compelling words, extending his gratitude to the China Subgroup, partners and attendees for advancing digital water innovation. Emphasising the Summit’s alignment with IWA’s 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, he reinforced the value of collaborative innovation and concluded: “Innovation knows no borders – let’s shape water’s future together.”
Weiliang Cai, Chairman of the Board of SIDRI, noted that digital transformation of the water sector is a vital part of Digital China and smart city initiatives. As one of the Summit hosts for three consecutive years, the institute’s primary objective is to leverage core technological innovation as a driving force and jointly build an open ecosystem to establish a robust intelligent water management industry chain. Together, these efforts aim to write a new chapter of intelligence in the digital transformation of the water industry.
Describing digital transformation as no longer an “optional choice” but an “imperative question”, Dr Aijie Wang, Professor of Harbin Institute of Technology, China, and Co-Chair of the China Subgroup, emphasised that successfully navigating this critical transition requires integrated innovation and concerted efforts across stakeholders, positioning digital transformation as a fundamental necessity for the resilience and efficiency of the water sector.
Renowned scholar from the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong, Professor Zhiguo Yuan, delivered a presentation titled ‘Sewer Management in a Digital Era’. An academician of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and a Distinguished Fellow of IWA, his presentation explored the transformative impact of digital technologies on modern sewer network management.
Dr Wim Audenaert, co-founder and CEO of AM-Team, and a member of the DWP Steering Committee, delivered a keynote titled ‘Bringing digital water from hype to value: today’s and future applications in Europe and North America’, exploring the challenges, opportunities, and practical implementations of digital transformation in the water sector, highlighting how AI-driven solutions are revolutionising the industry.
AI + water
At the AI + water sub-forum, experts leveraged their industry experience and technical insights to analyse AI’s application potential and practical pathways, showcasing the possibilities for AI integration. Bin Yang, Chairman of Beijing Golden Control Data Technology, shared his insights on ‘Innovative Framework and Agent Applications for Smart Water Based on Large Models’. He introduced an innovative ‘Large Model + Scenario-Specific Agent’ framework, where large models serve as the foundational base, an AI-engineering platform acts as the engine, and diverse AI agents function as interactive application tools. This integrated approach aims to transform vast water utility data into actionable, intelligent decisions, driving true operational intelligence across the water sector.
Closing the Summit, Dr Guo extended his appreciation to all contributing experts for their substantive insights, and acknowledged the pivotal support of the organisers and sponsors. IWA’s DWP China Subgroup remains dedicated to advancing an international knowledge exchange platform. This initiative facilitates the transfer of global best practices to accelerate China’s digital water innovation, while promoting its domestically developed solutions worldwide. Dr Guo urged China water sector stakeholders to leverage these opportunities for international knowledge exchange, fostering innovation capacity building and advancing China’s position in the global water landscape, through IWA events such as the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand, on 8-10 December 2025, and the IWA Digital Water Summit in Istanbul, Türkiye, in April 2026. Dr Guo also announced that the Chinese edition of the book A Strategic Digital Transformation for the Water Industry, was completed and published on the IWA Publishing website: www.iwaponline.com.
Innovative partnership
This year’s summit introduced an innovative partnership with long-term strategic collaborators, Zhuhai Zhuobang Technology and Shanghai Herui Expo, to launch the inaugural InnoHUB at Herui Expo’s flagship Watertech China exhibition. The InnoHUB featured two groundbreaking initiatives:
- A technology showcase highlighting cutting-edge solutions from leading technology providers
- A dedicated Digital Water Pavilion uniting China’s top digital water enterprises.
This strategic platform significantly enhanced market exposure for domestic innovators while creating unprecedented opportunities for international business collaboration and knowledge exchange within the digital water technology sector.
IWA Digital Water Programme and China Subgroup
The IWA DWP provides a platform to share experiences, promotes leadership in transitioning to digital water solutions, and consolidates lessons to guide utilities during their digital transformation. To ensure wider engagement with IWA members on digital water, the DWP is encouraging the formation of regional and topical subgroups where members can share experiences, identify gaps, and come up with efficient solutions on a specific topic.
Oliver Grievson, Chair of IWA’s DWP Steering Committee, commended the China Subgroup as one of the most dynamic pillars within the global digital water community. He said attending the Digital Water Innovation Summit left a profound impression of China’s advancements in digital water technologies.
IWA Director of Asia and Oceania Region Dr Hong Li, involved in the China Subgroup since its initial planning, said she had witnessed the evolution of the subgroup from successfully hosting three consecutive Digital Water Innovation Summits to organising local workshops, and translating two IWA digital water books, Digitalising Water: Sharing Singapore’s Experience, and A Strategic Digital Transformation for the Water Industry. She described how the subgroup has cultivated a vibrant Chinese digital water community and highlighted how the encouragement of applications to the IWA Project Innovation Awards (PIA) in China last year led to a record number of submissions, with eight projects from Greater China winning. This marked the highest number of Chinese winners in PIA’s history, “a milestone made possible by the Subgroup’s dedication”.
The China Subgroup has made, and continues to make, tremendous contributions to the success of IWA’s DWP in the region, and jointly with international peers explores the new frontiers, developments and opportunities in digital water management, driving the water industry forward globally into a more innovative and sustainable future.
The authors:
Yufeng Guo, Deputy General Manager, Three Gorges Smart Water Technology, China, and Co-chair of IWA’s DWP China Subgroup; Aijie Wang, Professor of Harbin Institute of Technology, and Co-chair of IWA’s DWP China Subgroup; Hong Li, IWA Regional Director for Asia and Oceania; Dongjian Xu, General Manager, Zhuhai Zhuobang Technology, and secretary general of IWA’s DWP China Subgroup.
