Project Partners
The department of Urban Water Management at Eawag established the urban living lab BlueX in 2025. BlueX creates an opportunity for all research groups of the department for doing research in a real-world setting in collaboration with experts from sectors other than academia. Thus, solutions can be created that can be implemented directly.
The department of Urban Water Management has successfully operated the urban hydrological field lab UWO in Fehraltorf for a duration of ten years. In Fehraltorf, members of the department implemented a sensor network for monitoring wastewater flows. Thus, a globally unique data set was generated. Some numbers about UWO:
The Blue Nexus Lab will supersede and expand the activities of the field lab UWO: UWO’s only focus was on underground water infrastructure. In contrast, the foci of BueX are not only water infrastructure below ground but also above ground. Furthermore, there will be more collaboration of staff from different sectors in joint projects.
The department of Urban Water Management at Eawag is grateful to have Limeco and its member municipalities as competent and committed partners for the development and operation of BlueX. We are looking forward to a collaboration that is built on jointly experimenting, learning, and reflecting on new solutions for the Limmattal and beyond.
Limeco is the regional utility company for Limmattal. Limeco recycles waste, treats wastewater and uses it to generate clean energy such as heat, electricity, and green gas for the region. In Dietikon, Limeco operates a wastewater treatment plant, a waste incineration plant, a district heating network and a power-to-gas plant. The waste incineration plant is certified with the "naturemade resources star" seal of approval. Limeco is owned by the eight member municiplaties Dietikon, Geroldswil, Oberengstringen, Oetwil an der Limmat, Schlieren, Unterengstringen, Urdorf and Weiningen.
The Urban Drainage (Siedlungsentwässerung) team in the Wastewater Management (Abwasserwirtschaft) division is responsible for the overall coordination of the GEP/V-GEP (Genereller Entwässerungsplan - General Drainage Plan/ Verbands-GEP - association GEP) and leads a working group with representatives from the member municipalities. The aim is to achieve efficient and sustainable urban drainage in Limmattal. The urban living lab BlueX provides valuable insights for Limeco and the participating member municipalities.
Member Municipalities
