Water management in the military: The SmartBlue Camp Profiling Tool

Increasingly, military installations are becoming part of the ongoing discussion on environmental sustainability. Military installations, and camps in particular, often resemble small towns in terms of inhabitants and demand for resources, but are significantly different from civilian settings in terms of autonomy needs, resource management, population make up and operational requirements. In this context, what is missing is the development of a specialised and standardised framework able to assess the status of military camps in terms of water resources management and infrastructures' sustainability. To this end, we develop and present the SmartBlue Camp profiling tool. The tool comprises of 31 Performance Indicators (PI) that evaluate the sustainability of water management in a camp, covering all aspects of the "military water cycle", and 15 Context Factors (CF) that assess background characteristics of the surrounding area, enabling a deeper understanding and interpretation of PI values. We also present the implementation of the tool in six European military camps, identifying priorities and opportunities for performance improvement and short-listing specific technological interventions at a case by case basis, able to address water challenges at the camp level.