{"id":5651,"date":"2026-10-26T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T11:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/?p=5651"},"modified":"2026-10-26T11:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T11:28:36","slug":"watourism-tourisms-water-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/updates\/watourism-tourisms-water-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"WATOURISM: tools to calculate, reduce and offset the water footprint of tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WATOURISM is a pioneering project that focuses on digitalisation and sustainable management of the water cycle to move towards a regenerative tourism model in the Balearic Islands. Its second line of work, devoted to the water footprint of tourism, draws on the Act4Water Standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What WATOURISM is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WATOURISM (Smart WATer management contributing to a sustainable TOURISM) has an investment of \u20ac764,000, is co-financed by Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and by ERDF funds, and will run until September 2027. Taking part are Cetaqua, the University of Valladolid, the University of Girona and, in the Balearic Islands, experts from the GLOWATER group at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its ultimate goal is to establish a methodological framework based on digitalisation, innovation and sustainability that can be replicated in other high-traffic tourist destinations, helping the sector adapt to the climate context and reduce its impact on water resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calvi\u00e0, a real laboratory for water innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project takes the municipality of Calvi\u00e0, one of Mallorca’s main tourist destinations, as its case study. It was chosen for its strong tourist demand and for the challenges posed by water sustainability, climate change and marked seasonality. New tools for smart water management will be tested there, designed to be useful well beyond this one municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Three lines of work, one real case study and a framework that can be replicated in other destinations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The three lines of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Data and territorial management.<\/strong> Use of smart meter data and artificial intelligence systems to improve territorial management, detect abnormal consumption or leaks, and locate illegal tourist accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Water footprint measurement and management.<\/strong> Measurement and management of tourism’s water footprint through the Act4Water Standard, in order to quantify the water consumed, directly and indirectly, by tourism activities and to promote water compensation and resilience projects that reduce pressure on local resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Advanced models for water policies.<\/strong>\u00a0Development of models to evaluate and design water demand policies in hotels and residential areas, useful for anticipating water stress situations and balancing the needs of residents and visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second line is the one that connects with the Standard. Applying a framework such as Act4Water makes it possible to obtain comparable, consistent indicators that can serve as a reference beyond Calvi\u00e0 and make it easier to transfer knowledge to other areas facing similar problems. Under the Standard, compensation and resilience projects are recognised through Water Credits, also known as Credits Aqua Positive (CAPs), each equivalent to 1,000 m\u00b3 of positive water impact. It is an approach that connects with the tourism challenge with a positive water impact that the teams at Wetskills Barcelona<\/a> worked on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A three-year agreement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project is accompanied by a three-year collaboration agreement, signed in January 2026 at the Antoni Maria Alcover building of the UIB. The university will provide technical advice and help identify improvements in water management. The agreement also provides for a stable framework of cooperation in innovation, digitalisation and advanced data management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WATOURISM promotes regenerative tourism in the Balearic Islands through smart water management; its second line measures and manages the water footprint using the Act4Water Standard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5658,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions\/5658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act4water.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}