**4.1 The funded project KOMMUNAL 4.0**

The cooperation project KOMMUNAL 4.0, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, will devote itself in a special way to the challenges described above. Current and expected future developments in the field of Industry 4.0 were examined for applicability in municipal water management. KOMMUNAL 4.0 was selected as one of the 16 winners in a pure industrial competition from 130 applicants [8]. The intended developments for digitization lead to higher efficiency, safety and control in the operation of water management plants and systems and can serve as a model for other infrastructure sectors. The current low adaptability of municipal infrastructures to changing conditions such as heavy rainfall or demographic change can be significantly increased with the help of the IT and organizational solutions from KOMMUNAL 4.0.

The project consortium (see www.kommunal4null.de) under the cooperation management of HST Systemtechnik GmbH & Co. KG strives for the following essential goals:


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*Smart Water—How to Master the Future Challenges of Water Management*

• Development of digital business models such as machine sharing.

The developments focus on modular and step-oriented solutions. It starts with individual intelligent aggregates, so-called smart machines, and lead to the linking of several objects with each other up to a completely networked infrastructure system. Essential objects of the project are so-called pilot projects. Here, the developed application tools were installed at selected municipalities or operators in a real

In order to maintain the previous ideas and the already established network of experts in the KOMMUNAL 4.0 funding project after the end of the project (31.12.2019), the Federal Association KOMMUNAL 4.0 (www.kommunal4null-ev. de) was founded in 2017. It supports the previous basic and competence transfer of the funding project and will work as a hub for the digitization of municipal infrastructures. It also takes care of central tasks such as public relations for digitization, training and further education, standardization and networking. The association sees itself as a central point of contact for planning and implementing the first steps toward the digitization of municipal infrastructures or for carrying out advanced technological expansions. Even though the current focus is on the municipal water sector due to the proximity to the funding project, all other relevant sectors of

A central importance for the water sector is the establishment of a KOMMUNAL

Embedded systems have been around for a long time at the water management.

The stored specifications of a smart machine follow clear assignments and rules, especially for control. Changes to the specifications are made by the operator via set points or directly at the PLC level by a programmer. Data is linked locally by cable. And how do smart machines emerge from this? Thanks to the availability of rapidly increasing web-based application options, the monitoring, control and regulation of actuators no longer needs to be carried out in isolation with locally recorded data and locally used automation technology. For example, additional information

The state of the art is that mechanical aggregates are connected to automation technology, which takes over monitoring, control and regulation functions based on various information (mostly from measurement sensors). Automation technology is also used for data acquisition and transmission to higher-level units such as SCADA systems. They form an important part of a complete networking solution

4.0 academy. So far, the sector is not be able to offer any application-related further training courses. The Federal Association KOMMUNAL 4.0 will offer a corresponding service which covers the topics IT security, IT systems, operational management, process control engineering as well as measurement and automation engineering. But there will also be application-related offerings, e.g. how digitization can look specifically in water supply or wastewater disposal or in special structures such as pumps, rainwater basins, sewage treatment plants, etc. In addition, there will be special seminars for mayors, heads of offices and planners so that these industry participants can set their very special requirements in relation to the

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90644*

**4.2 Association KOMMUNAL 4.0 e.V**

challenges of digitization.

(see **Figure 1**).

• Analysis of legal aspects of cloud computing.

infrastructure environment incl. comprehensively testing.

municipal infrastructure are to be added in the future.

**4.3 From smart machines to smart infrastructures**

• Development of required IT security concepts.


The developments focus on modular and step-oriented solutions. It starts with individual intelligent aggregates, so-called smart machines, and lead to the linking of several objects with each other up to a completely networked infrastructure system. Essential objects of the project are so-called pilot projects. Here, the developed application tools were installed at selected municipalities or operators in a real infrastructure environment incl. comprehensively testing.
