Short Description
D4.4 InnWater Governance Platform V1 is the first document describing the platform developed within Task 4.4 (T4.4) of Work Package 4 (WP4). WP4 consists of 4 tasks, the "Water Governance diagnosis tool" in T4.1, the "Cross-sector hybrid dashboard and simulation combining economic and physical indicators" in T4.2, the "Domestic water tariff dashboard" in T4.3, and the "InnWater water governance platform (from raising awareness to support decision making)" in T4.4. This platform will serve as a cornerstone for the final objective of WP4, which is to create a digital tool within the WEFE nexus that facilitates the development of policy-based decision-making strategies in its constituent sectors, and will host the tools from these other tasks, developed within the same work package. It will also incorporate and manage data generated throughout the whole project and enable easy interaction with these components through a user interface, ensuring that users understand the different procedures.
The objective of this deliverable is to explain all the initial decisions regarding the design and development of the platform during the first 12 months (M6-M18). It covers everything from the requirements identified in discussions with stakeholders and end users to the decisions about the platform architecture design that will ensure the correct functioning of the software. Therefore, this document contains information prior to the technical implementation of the platform, right now ongoing, but which will be reported in the future D4.5 “InnWater Governance platform V2”.
The deliverable is composed of different sections ordered from less to more technical. The initial sections focus more on the interaction between stakeholders, while the latter sections define the technical actions needed to fulfill the results of these interactions:
• Platform requirements: Outlines the initial design and development specifications for the platform. The requirements identified include ensuring the ease of tool use, enhancing the e-learning experience, defining user pathways, integrating APIs, enabling data export, managing data storage, providing clear indicators, ensuring accurate referencing, facilitating interaction between tools and data, and incorporating an AI assistant. These requirements were gathered from discussions with stakeholders and end users and will guide the technical implementation to ensure the platform functions correctly and meets user needs.
• User interface: Describes the initial steps taken to create the platform’s interface, beginning with the creation of a low and a high-fidelity prototype. The low-fidelity prototype focuses on structuring concepts and visual information without detailed design elements. It includes identifying basic navigation through a navbar, offering a first look at platform options via a carousel, and providing initial explanations of the project and tools. The high-fidelity prototype improves the low-fidelity design by refining the structure and incorporating detailed visual styles, technical components, and interactions. This prototype offers a more realistic representation of the final product, allowing for comprehensive user testing and feedback on specific design elements and interactions, ensuring that the final implementation is polished, user-friendly, and meets all defined requirements.
• Backend: The backend of the platform is responsible for orchestrating all system interactions, whether between tools or between the user and the system itself and executing all necessary computations. The document describes the platform architecture, which defines the data input and output communication protocols, the internal modules that manage the data required by the different tools, and the database system used to store information within the system.
• AI Assistant: Describes the architecture of the AI assistant for the platform. It includes five modules: The Interface Module (handles the user and/or platform requests), Query Treatment Module (processes and directs user queries), Retrieval Module (fetches data from the project documents), Large Language Model (generates responses to queries), and Query-Answer Logger (logs interactions for analysis and optimization). This modular approach ensures efficient query handling, data retrieval, and system scalability, enhancing the user experience by assisting as smoothly as possible.
The EU will benefit from the added value of the idea and design of this work since it introduces software that orchestrates data and digital tools interactions with an added functionality that fully focuses on user interaction, enabling fast navigation, assisting the user while navigating, and letting the user access the project data with AI-based searches. The assistant is implemented using Generative AI technology, currently one of the most important topics within AI, and will showcase a product that implements it in a common scenario (question-answer) and in an uncommon use case (generative e-learning), dynamically guiding the user through the tool.
D4.4 is linked with all the WPs within the InnWater project since the data needs to be collected from all of them. Furthermore, the developed platform will be showcased to the project Pilot Sites (PS) and the WEFE governance community surrounding the project. However, specific technical links exist with other parts of the project:
• T2.1 “Enhanced methodology for expanded and improved application of OECD Governance Assessment Framework”: The main contribution being the theoretical definition of the Water Governance tool. While the link is secondary, it has impacted the definition of the tool’s interactions, defining which governance data can be used by other digital tools.
• T4.1 “Water Governance diagnostic tool”: The first tool to be integrated within the platform. It follows the theoretical definition of T2.1 and will have connections with other tools defined within WP4.
• T4.2 “Cross-sector hybrid dashboard and simulation combining economic and physical indicators”: The task developing a macroeconomic simulation model (i.e., a Computable General Equilibrium model, short: CGE model) and its visualization dashboard. It will also be included as one of the main tools within the platform.
• T4.3 “Domestic water tariff dashboard”: The task developing the water tariff dashboard, a digital tool also integrated within the platform, and highly linked with Reunion Island PS.
• T5.2 “Pilot sites operation”: The platform aims to be a helpful digital tool for end users from the WEFE sectors, and the PS provide the stakeholders and end users that assist in creating it. Furthermore, the tools integrated within the platform will be highly linked with some of the PS.
D4.4 InnWater Governance Platform #V1 5
• T6.3 “Replication assessment throughout Europe”: The developed platform needs to be scalable enough to integrate tools and data outside the project. This task from WP6 will study how the platform can be reused in new locations.
The objective of this deliverable is to explain all the initial decisions regarding the design and development of the platform during the first 12 months (M6-M18). It covers everything from the requirements identified in discussions with stakeholders and end users to the decisions about the platform architecture design that will ensure the correct functioning of the software. Therefore, this document contains information prior to the technical implementation of the platform, right now ongoing, but which will be reported in the future D4.5 “InnWater Governance platform V2”.
The deliverable is composed of different sections ordered from less to more technical. The initial sections focus more on the interaction between stakeholders, while the latter sections define the technical actions needed to fulfill the results of these interactions:
• Platform requirements: Outlines the initial design and development specifications for the platform. The requirements identified include ensuring the ease of tool use, enhancing the e-learning experience, defining user pathways, integrating APIs, enabling data export, managing data storage, providing clear indicators, ensuring accurate referencing, facilitating interaction between tools and data, and incorporating an AI assistant. These requirements were gathered from discussions with stakeholders and end users and will guide the technical implementation to ensure the platform functions correctly and meets user needs.
• User interface: Describes the initial steps taken to create the platform’s interface, beginning with the creation of a low and a high-fidelity prototype. The low-fidelity prototype focuses on structuring concepts and visual information without detailed design elements. It includes identifying basic navigation through a navbar, offering a first look at platform options via a carousel, and providing initial explanations of the project and tools. The high-fidelity prototype improves the low-fidelity design by refining the structure and incorporating detailed visual styles, technical components, and interactions. This prototype offers a more realistic representation of the final product, allowing for comprehensive user testing and feedback on specific design elements and interactions, ensuring that the final implementation is polished, user-friendly, and meets all defined requirements.
• Backend: The backend of the platform is responsible for orchestrating all system interactions, whether between tools or between the user and the system itself and executing all necessary computations. The document describes the platform architecture, which defines the data input and output communication protocols, the internal modules that manage the data required by the different tools, and the database system used to store information within the system.
• AI Assistant: Describes the architecture of the AI assistant for the platform. It includes five modules: The Interface Module (handles the user and/or platform requests), Query Treatment Module (processes and directs user queries), Retrieval Module (fetches data from the project documents), Large Language Model (generates responses to queries), and Query-Answer Logger (logs interactions for analysis and optimization). This modular approach ensures efficient query handling, data retrieval, and system scalability, enhancing the user experience by assisting as smoothly as possible.
The EU will benefit from the added value of the idea and design of this work since it introduces software that orchestrates data and digital tools interactions with an added functionality that fully focuses on user interaction, enabling fast navigation, assisting the user while navigating, and letting the user access the project data with AI-based searches. The assistant is implemented using Generative AI technology, currently one of the most important topics within AI, and will showcase a product that implements it in a common scenario (question-answer) and in an uncommon use case (generative e-learning), dynamically guiding the user through the tool.
D4.4 is linked with all the WPs within the InnWater project since the data needs to be collected from all of them. Furthermore, the developed platform will be showcased to the project Pilot Sites (PS) and the WEFE governance community surrounding the project. However, specific technical links exist with other parts of the project:
• T2.1 “Enhanced methodology for expanded and improved application of OECD Governance Assessment Framework”: The main contribution being the theoretical definition of the Water Governance tool. While the link is secondary, it has impacted the definition of the tool’s interactions, defining which governance data can be used by other digital tools.
• T4.1 “Water Governance diagnostic tool”: The first tool to be integrated within the platform. It follows the theoretical definition of T2.1 and will have connections with other tools defined within WP4.
• T4.2 “Cross-sector hybrid dashboard and simulation combining economic and physical indicators”: The task developing a macroeconomic simulation model (i.e., a Computable General Equilibrium model, short: CGE model) and its visualization dashboard. It will also be included as one of the main tools within the platform.
• T4.3 “Domestic water tariff dashboard”: The task developing the water tariff dashboard, a digital tool also integrated within the platform, and highly linked with Reunion Island PS.
• T5.2 “Pilot sites operation”: The platform aims to be a helpful digital tool for end users from the WEFE sectors, and the PS provide the stakeholders and end users that assist in creating it. Furthermore, the tools integrated within the platform will be highly linked with some of the PS.
D4.4 InnWater Governance Platform #V1 5
• T6.3 “Replication assessment throughout Europe”: The developed platform needs to be scalable enough to integrate tools and data outside the project. This task from WP6 will study how the platform can be reused in new locations.
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