Smart water for Castellón.

Digital transformation is also reaching the essential infrastructures that sustain the daily lives of our municipalities. At GOservicios, we have completed lots 1 and 2 of the project “Digitalisation works of the urban water cycle in municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants”, promoted by the Diputación de Castellón within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. A far-reaching project that has allowed us to act simultaneously in 130 water supplies spread across the entire province.

With this action, we contribute to improving the control, efficiency and sustainability of municipal supply networks, making it easier for town councils to have real-time information to optimise water management, detect incidents and move towards a smarter and more resilient model.

 

A network of connected municipalities to better manage water

Aware of the importance of modernising the hydraulic infrastructures of small municipalities, the Diputación de Castellón promoted, under the umbrella of the PERTE (Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation), a campaign aimed at the digitalisation of the urban water cycle.

The project was divided into two main areas of action: lot 1, corresponding to the northern area of Castellón, and lot 2, focused on the southern area. Both form part of a strategic initiative aimed at modernising the hydraulic infrastructures of small municipalities through the incorporation of monitoring and communications technology.

At GOservicios, we were responsible for the installation and commissioning of field equipment capable of collecting key information on the performance of water networks. These include flow meters, pressure sensors, water quality meters, reservoir levels and communication gateways based on LoRaWAN technology—devices that allow data to be concentrated and transmitted to management platforms.

The figures reflect the magnitude of the project: we have worked on 130 supplies, installed 138 communication gateways, 599 flow meters, 185 water quality meters and 159 reservoir level measurement systems. All of this within an intervention that exceeded €3.5 million of allocated budget.

But beyond the numbers, the real challenge lay in coordination. Each supply required action in multiple locations—reservoirs, wells, inspection chambers or strategic points in the network—which led us to intervene in nearly a thousand different points distributed throughout the province.

 

 

Coordination, technology and experience to face a unique challenge

One of the most complex aspects of the project was working simultaneously in dozens of municipalities with different realities. Each intervention required coordination with town councils, water managers, technical heads and work brigades, always minimising the impact on the daily lives of residents.

• As Pedro Jesús Gómez Pajares, project manager at GOservicios, explains: “The complexity of this work lay in acting across around a thousand different locations, coordinating teams, town councils and water managers practically at the same time. It has been a massive organisational effort.”

During peak periods, we deployed several civil engineering, technical assembly and communications installation brigades working in parallel across multiple municipalities. To manage these operations, we used digital coordination and tracking tools that allowed us to centralise technical information, documentation and site progress in real time.

Furthermore, a specific construction management database was developed for this intervention, allowing for detailed monitoring of the installed equipment, the receipt of forms and photographs sent from the field, as well as financial and project certification tracking. This technological tool proved key to coordinating an intervention distributed across hundreds of simultaneous locations.

The permanent team in charge of managing the works consisted of project managers Jose Plaza and Pablo Gilabert, alongside foremen Ismael Gonzalez and Jose Vicente Gavara, whose coordination was fundamental to guaranteeing the progress of the works throughout the province.

 

 

Our team's prior experience in digitalisation projects for the comprehensive water cycle was key to anticipating incidents and adapting to the specific characteristics of each locality. From holiday periods when water cuts had to be avoided, to specific interventions in asbestos cement installations—a material that requires very specific safety protocols—every detail required planning and responsiveness.

Additionally, the project was developed in coordination with other technological initiatives promoted by the Diputación de Castellón, such as the Smart Villages platform, designed to centralise and visualise all information generated by the new digital infrastructures.

 

 

An impact that goes beyond technology

The digitalisation of the urban water cycle represents a direct improvement for the municipalities and their inhabitants. Thanks to these systems, management entities will have access to more accurate information on consumption, leaks, water quality and facility operations, enabling faster and more efficient decision-making.

At GOservicios, we view this type of project as an investment in sustainability, resilience and public service. Improving water management not only helps optimise resources and reduce losses, but also contributes to guaranteeing a safer supply that is better prepared for future challenges.

The official handover of the works by the Diputación de Castellón confirms the fulfilment of the planned objectives and now opens a new stage focused on the monitoring, guarantee and consolidation of the implemented systems.

We continue working to accompany administrations and management entities on the path towards smarter, more connected and sustainable infrastructures. Because transforming water management is also about transforming people's quality of life.