Designing the next generation of urban water systems
The highly anticipated ‘Battle of the Water Networks’ is back with a new challenge for the water community. This competition will be hosted at the 4th International Joint Conference on Water Distribution Systems Analysis and Computing and Control in the Water Industry (WDSA/CCWI 2026), taking place in Paphos, Cyprus, from May 18-21, 2026.
This competition embodies the core mission of Water-Futures and the theme for WDSA/CCWI 2026: “Designing the next generation of urban water (and wastewater) systems.”
The objective is to design and operate a water distribution system over a long-term horizon under deep uncertainty, with interventions applied in stages. For the first time, this challenge features a staged-design approach, unobservable and unknown uncertainties, and incorporates elements of policymaking and artificial intelligence. The solutions will be assessed using a transparent and inspectable open-source evaluation framework.
Next Deadline ⏰
First stage solution submission: 6th March 2026
Stay on track with all important dates on our Timeline page.
Get ahead of everyone! 🥇
Are you looking for the data? The most up-to-date information are available through multiple channels:
🌐 Official Competition Website - Full documentation and resources
📚 Zenodo Repository - Archived releases and datasets
📄 Problem Description (arXiv) - Technical paper with problem formulation
Want to be notified at every update?
Send an email to battlewaterfutures@kwrwater.nl with the subject “Competition Updates”.
We’ll share the calendar with you and keep you informed as soon as:
- Competition guidelines are published.
- Evaluation modules are released.
- Submission deadlines are approaching.
Got a question?
Check out our discussion page on GitHub. Here you can find FAQs and follow the development in real time.
If you can’t find an answer to your question, just reach out to us and we’ll get back to you!
Latest Updates 📢
- 22nd December 2025 - Version 0.3.0
- 15th December 2025 - Version 0.2.0
- 8th December 2025 - Version 0.1.0
- 24th November 2025 - Version 0.1.0-beta.3
- 15th October 2025 - Version 0.1.0-beta.2
- 1st September 2025 - Version 0.1.0-beta.1
See the full changelog.
This competition is organized by a dedicated subteam of the Water-Futures project, including external collaborators. Discover the full Water-Futures team and our broader initiatives on our website.