The Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria (SPEGC) and the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC) organized the keynote lecture “Artificial Intelligence in the Integrated Water Cycle – Innovation, Opportunities, and Challenges for the Canary Islands”, delivered by Mr. Javier Santana Afonso, a technology consultant specialized in AI and founder of Cognitia Tech.
The event, held on May 27, 2025, at the Marine-Maritime Innovation Center – Fundación Puertos de Las Palmas Building, was part of the IDIWATER project’s activities and brought together around thirty attendees, including water management professionals, institutional representatives, researchers, and students. The meeting created a space for reflection on the impact of digital transformation in a strategic sector for the sustainability of island territories.
The main objective of the session was to raise awareness of the current and potential role of artificial intelligence in managing the integrated water cycle, analyzing its challenges, opportunities, and practical applications.
In his presentation, Javier Santana emphasized that artificial intelligence offers enormous potential to improve water management through real-time monitoring, demand prediction, and infrastructure optimization, resulting in greater efficiency, resource savings, and new forms of governance.
In the case of the Canary Islands, where water management faces challenges such as heavy reliance on desalination and high energy consumption, AI is emerging as a key tool to move toward progressive and resilient digitalization. However, he cautioned that its implementation requires addressing challenges related to data quality, professional training, and ethical application.
Practical examples were presented to show that this transformation is already a reality, such as early leak detection and the optimization of desalination plant operations. Nevertheless, Santana stressed that the real challenge is cultural and organizational, requiring entities willing to innovate, multidisciplinary teams, and public-private collaboration to consolidate a sustainable long-term digital strategy.
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This is the first in a series of keynote lectures promoted within the framework of the IDIWATER project, co-financed at 85% by ERDF funds through the Interreg MAC 2021-2027 Program (1/MAC/1/1.1/0022) and linked to the DESAL+ Living Lab platform.
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