Water BOOST Enabling Innovation for Future Ready Cities 2025

To strengthen systemic impact, Valencia must reinforce policy agility, deepen multistakeholder collaboration and better integrate academic and private-sector insights into formal decision-making. By addressing the focus area through targeted enablers, the city can transform its operational excellence into a full-spectrum innovation ecosystem capable of responding to growing climate variability and urban water challenges. Valencia spotlight: Global Omnium’s innovation reinforcing loop BOX 2 Valencia’s private sector offers a blueprint for water innovation adoption and scaling, led by Global Omnium (GO). Over a 15-year period, GO has digitalized its operations, installing more than 1 million sensors and adopting advanced data analytics to optimize service delivery. This transformation gave rise to Idrica, a digital spin-off that developed GoAigua – now Xylem Vue – an AI-enabled platform managing water networks in real time. To further accelerate innovation, GO launched GoHub Ventures in 2019, investing more than €90 million in high-tech start-ups to date. This strategy created a reinforcing loop: start- ups such as Auravant, Agrow Analytics and Fivecomm have developed solutions that GO integrates into its operations, improving efficiency, reducing water losses and energy consumption and enhancing service delivery. These operational insights then inform GoHub’s future investment priorities, creating a continuous cycle of innovation feedback. Results are tangible: GO reports a 30% reduction in non-revenue water, a 15% decrease in energy use during treatment and a 20% reduction in operating expenditure costs. Yet this innovation remains largely confined to operational domains, without influencing public-sector transformation. Valencia’s experience shows that while private leadership can drive digital water management, bridging towards public innovation ecosystems remains critical for systemic change. Singapore’s water innovation ecosystem is globally recognized for its integrated, state-led approach. Confronted by acute water scarcity and national security concerns, the city state has long prioritized water as a strategic resource.39 This commitment has fostered an enabling environment built on strong governance, public–private collaboration and investment in research and development. At the governance level, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) serves as Singapore’s national water utility and operates under a self-regulatory framework to ensure the safety of water for domestic and industrial use, audited regularly by external experts. The Singapore Food Agency is the statutory regulator, while the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment (MSES) acts as the primary policy driver, working closely in partnership with PUB to ensure cohesive regulatory and strategic leadership. This governance model benefits from strong intra- government collaboration (E1) and robust individual enablers (E1, E2, E4), such as transparent public procurement processes and coordinated regulatory mandates. Together, PUB and the ministry maintain consistent policy direction, prioritizing water and food security through diversification and innovation.3.3 Singapore Water-BOOST: Enabling Innovation for Future-Ready Cities 25