INTCATCH

• Grant agreement ID: 689341

• Total project budget: 8.770.935€

• Start Date: 01/06/2016

  End Date: 30/01/2020

• Project website: www.intcatch.eu/

Project Summary: 

INTCATCH instigated a paradigm shift in the monitoring and management of surface water quality that is fit for global waters in the period 2020-2050. INTCATCH have developed and demonstrated efficient, user-friendly water monitoring strategies and systems based on innovative technologies that provide real time data for important parameters, favoring the transition towards SMART Rivers.  

The INTCATCH project used demonstration activities to showcase eco-innovative autonomous and radio-controlled boats, sensors, DNA test kits and run-off treatment technologies. Actions which develop and evaluate these in a range of catchments addressed the important innovation barriers to uptake, notably, a lack of knowledge of new technologies and their capabilities, identified by the European Innovation Plan (EIP) on water. By conceptually moving the laboratory to the ‘field’, the monitoring techniques developed aim to supersede the inefficient, time dependent, costly and labor-intensive routine sampling and analysis procedures currently deployed to understand the quality of receiving waters. It compliments routine monitoring that is required for baseline datasets, but also enable cost-effective impact and management investigations.  

INTCATCH incentivized stakeholder innovation in monitoring and facilitated new financing for innovation through its innovative franchise business model and empowerment of community groups and NGOs. The market ambition is that the INTCATCH business will facilitate an eco-innovative approach to deliver good quality water bodies across Europe and beyond. This will support green growth, increase resilience to climate change and capture greater market-share for Europe’s innovative industries. 

The INTCATCH H2020 project was coordinated by Brunel University London (UK) and counted on 20 partners from 7 European countries (UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece Norway and Spain). Currently, the INTCATCH investigation service is being provided in Greece, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain. 

Our role in the project: 

In the framework of the H2020 INTCATCH project, BETA Tech Center has been the main responsible for the demonstration activities (WP8) that were carried out at Lake Yiliki (Greece) and in upper River Ter catchment (Spain). The demonstration in River Ter was mainly focused on the boat equipped with several sensors (to measure standard water quality parameters as electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH) and the intelligent spectral analyzer (ISA) which provides the simultaneous acquisition of multiple parameters (i.e. nutrients concentrations, total suspended solids, turbidity among others). As a first step of demonstration, a consistent number of regular campaigns were carried out along upper Ter catchment with the objective to test the reliability of the boats, sensors and data streaming system and treatment in an operational environment. During the second phase of the demonstration, the monitoring strategy was more case-study focused with a reduced number of deployments carried out to fulfil the needs of different stakeholders (Catalan Water Agency and Consorci Besos-Tordera) in LLobregat and Besos river networks.