Smart Water Networks as Cyber-Physical-Socio-Environmental Systems

This position paper introduces a novel Cyber-Physical-Socio-Environmental Systems (CPSES) framework for Smart Water Networks (SWN). The proposed framework introduces environmental aspects as a key constituent, which is important for addressing the interconnected challenges of water systems, such as climate change impacts, contamination risk, and sustainability. The CPSES framework dynamically incorporates interactions between physical components (sensors, actuators), cyber systems (control, monitoring, digital twins), social factors (policy, demand management, crisis response), and environmental impacts (emissions, resource availability). The significance of this framework lies in its potential to enable more resilient, sustainable, and secure SWNs by incorporating feedback loops among the CPSES constituents. Key CPSES research challenges are outlined, such as modeling the impacts of climate change, dynamic risk estimation, and ethical and fairness aspects within SWN. A real-world use case on water contamination crisis management demonstrates the framework's practical application and relevance for researchers.