SHIELD

EU Space for water challenge

The focus of modern water resource management in water utilities is increasingly on improving efficiency at multiple operational levels. This shift is driven by regulatory changes, rising energy costs, and the need to reduce energy consumption in technical systems. At the same time, growing water scarcity puts further pressure on ensuring sustainable access to drinking water.

EU member states are required to comply with Directive (EU) 2020/2184 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. In addition to ensuring water quality, the directive emphasises the importance of ensuring sufficient water availability, reducing losses from leaks in distribution networks, and modernising water infrastructure.

Consequently, water utilities face significant challenges, particularly in detecting and removing leaks. Reducing water loss conserves resources, lowers energy consumption, minimises the risk of contamination, prevents system failures, and improves operational efficiency. To achieve these goals, advanced monitoring systems and reliable data are required to support accurate assessment and decision making.

IDEA

SHIELD directly addresses these challenges by enabling satellite-based  detection of water losses in distribution systems, supporting utilities in reducing leaks, and improving operational efficiency. The project supports more efficient and sustainable water management, aligns with current regulatory and environmental requirements, and demonstrates an innovative approach to improving infrastructure performance and resilience.

By providing large-scale data, the project helps optimise resource use, lower energy consumption, and align with EU requirements on water efficiency and infrastructure modernisation. Ultimately, it contributes to ensuring a sustainable water supply in the context of increased water scarcity. SHIELD addresses the CASSINI hackathon challenge by addressing water loss in distribution systems through satellite-based monitoring and leak detection. 

EU space technologies

SHIELD solution provides particular added value by enabling the identification of potential leakage areas even in environments where traditional sensing systems are sparse or unavailable. This is achieved using publicly available satellite data, allowing scalable and cost-effective monitoring of water loss over large areas. SHIELD prototype utilize Sentinel-1 GRD Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Sentinel-2 L2A Surface Reflectance.

Sentinel-1 GRD SAR data is used primarily in VV polarization, exported as radar backscatter values and converted to decibels (dB). As Sentinel-1 operates in the C-band and provides observations independently of cloud cover and daylight, it is well suited for regular monitoring of infrastructure surroundings. In SHIELD, it serves as the main signal for detecting local surface-wetness anomalies that may indicate potential water losses or infrastructure-related changes.

Sentinel-2 L2A Surface Reflectance data is used to analyse visible, near-infrared, red-edge and SWIR reflectance bands, from which indices such as NDVI, NDMI and MNDWI are derived. These indicators provide contextual information on vegetation condition, surface moisture and possible surface-water presence, helping distinguish potential wetness anomalies from vegetation changes, land-cover effects or other surface disturbances.

TARGET USERS AND FUTURE STEPS

The solution is not targeted exclusively at large water utilities, which in many cases already achieve relatively low water loss rates thanks to extensive monitoring infrastructures, including networks of sensors such as flow meters and pressure transducers, as well as advanced data analytics systems. In their case, leak detection and localisation are largely supported by continuous operational monitoring and well-developed measurement frameworks. 

A particularly important and often underaddressed group are small and medium-sized water utilities, especially those operating in smaller municipalities. Many of these utilities lack detailed knowledge of their actual network water losses, primarily due to a limited number of measurement points and insufficient monitoring infrastructure. As a result, operators often do not have a complete understanding of the condition of their distribution systems, making effective leak detection, prioritisation of repairs, and infrastructure planning significantly more difficult.

The SHIELD project includes a module for precise detection of area-wide damage, which enables farmers and insurance companies to objectively assess crop losses resulting from water infrastructure failures. Using SENTINEL satellite data, it can generate damage extent reports, which significantly speeds up claims settlement procedures and provides hard evidence in the claims adjustment process.

Future steps:

1. Hackathon / Proof-of-Concept Phase — 0–3 months

Develop simple processing scripts using selected satellite-derived indicators, primarily NDMI and MNDWI, based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. The goal is to demonstrate that local soil-moisture or surface-water anomalies can be detected around selected infrastructure points.

2. Method Validation Pilot — 4–9 months

Test the approach on real, forward-looking operational data from an internal client or partner. Extend the method with additional anomaly-detection logic, weather correction, deep learning components, and AI-assisted interpretation of detected changes.

3. Minimum Viable Product — 10–18 months

Build an initial web-based solution with a user dashboard, alert scoring, anomaly visualization, and key performance metrics such as false-positive rates. Validate the product with at least one external client and continuously improve the methodology based on technical results and user feedback.

4. Commercial Beta — 19–26 months

Support 3–5 paying pilot customers in parallel. Add automated report generation, improve operational reliability, and prepare full integration with industry-standard GIS tools and client-side infrastructure-management workflows.

5. Version 1.0 and Scaling — 27+ months

Release a scalable Version 1.0 of the product. Continue product development based on customer feedback, improve detection quality and usability, and scale the platform to support multiple clients, larger monitored areas, and recurring commercial deployments.

TEAM MEMBERS

Our team includes researchers in environmental engineering and automation, along with a water utility professional who brings industry experience. It also includes specialists in software development, IT, computer graphics, satellite data analysis and GIS. This combination allows us to address both technical and practical aspects of the project.

Klaudia Holcman is a professional graphic designer and illustrator specialising in visual communication and branding. In the SHIELD project, she is responsible for the visual identity, including the design of the logo, banners, and project presentations.

Maciej Kołczyk is an experienced web developer with a strong command of languages such as HTML, CSS, PHP, and Python. Within the SHIELD project, he focusses on SENTINEL data analysis and the technical development of web applications.

Teodor Niżyński is a Ph.D. researcher and machine learning specialist with extensive experience in computer vision and satellite image segmentation. He contributes to SHIELD by performing an advanced analysis of SENTINEL data.

Michał Oktawiec is a hydrologist and Ph.D. researcher specializing in hydrodynamic modelling, GIS technology, and environmental data analysis. His role in the SHIELD project involves leveraging his expertise in Python and GIS to analyse SENTINEL data for environmental monitoring.

Andrzej Przerwa is a GIS and network monitoring specialist at a municipal water and sewage utility company. In the SHIELD project, he serves as a key expert and the primary source of data on infrastructure failures and network monitoring.

Justyna Stańczyk is a Ph.D. researcher specialising in environmental engineering and geospatial analysis. For the SHIELD project, she handles GIS geospatial data analysis and contributes to the preparation of graphic materials and presentations.

Mateusz Stawiarski is a full-stack developer who specialises in spatial data analysis and the construction of specialised software applications. Within the SHIELD team, he is responsible for analysing SENTINEL satellite data and developing the project application framework.

Seweryn Zawadzki is an experienced GIS project coordinator with a focus on managing geospatial workflows. He serves as a coordinator for the SHIELD project, specifically overseeing the analysis of SENTINEL satellite imagery.

Repository

https://github.com/TeoNiz/Cassini_hackathon_2026_SHIELD