7. Conclusions and outlook

The vagaries of the water cycle (floods, droughts, dry periods, etc.) linked to climate change pose new risks for the industry.

The water efficiency approach is based on the production of a global, systemic and integrated vision of an industrial site's water usage. This forms the basis for objectivizing significant water uses and then defining ways of improving industrial and environmental performance.

Information is a key factor in this approach; it comes from different types of sensors and is centralized in different information systems. Making this information reliable and centralizing it is important for its exploitation.

Improving production tools within the property boundary of an industrial site is not enough to bring about overall changes in water management. As water availability in terms of quantity and...