Access to secure and clean water is essential; however, roughly half of the world's population is faced with severe water scarcity regularly, as per the UN's latest Water Development Report. This is due to a general lack of sufficient water resources, as well as low levels of wastewater treatment and runoff from agriculture. Even where there is water, it is not always safe – 2.2 billion people do not have access to safely-managed drinking water.
Even when there is access to water, it can result in disastrous flood events, and as can be witnessed around the world, this is exacerbated by climate change. Indeed, the UN is observing that due to climate change, both floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and extreme, affecting more and more people adversely. Accordingly, the EU Green Week 2024 is themed Towards a water resilient Europe.
Following the publication of our study on Innovation in Water, our new Espacenet platform tracks and makes visible recent developments and the state of play in both fields. Below you will find two sections, one covering the provision, conservation and recycling of clean water, the other shedding light on developments in various forms of protection from it. As you navigate through them, you will find they are grouped along fields of technology, becoming more focused with each additional level.
The platform allows you to:
- Identify patents mapped to over 75 relevant concepts concerning water provision and conservation, along with bibliographic information (e.g. title, abstract, applicants, inventors and more).
- Effortlessly display descriptive statistics for each water technology concept (e.g. patent counts per year, applicant, inventor, country and technology class).
- Retrieve the Espacenet query used to identify patents within a given water technology concept and tailor it to your specific needs (e.g. broaden or narrow the search).
The search queries are the result of the collaboration between the EPO's patent examiners and the national patent offices of Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom, who have joined forces to support scientists, engineers, and innovators in their endeavours. Explore for yourself!
UN Sustainable Development Goals
This platform contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 and 11
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.