Stream – Icebreaker One

Unlocking water data for the benefit of customers, society, and the environment

Overview

The Stream programme aims to stimulate innovation and collaboration through open and shared data, with a vision to unlock water data for the benefit of customers, society, and the environment. In April 2024, Stream launched www.streamwaterdata.co.uk with datasets published by the water companies.

Stream is a collaboration between UK water companies, supported by industry and civil society partners with a vision to unlock the potential of water data to benefit customers, society, and the environment.

IB1 involvement in Stream

As governance advisory & implementation partner, IB1 convenes a Steering Group and two Advisory Groups that shape the development of the Stream programme:

Steering Group: convenes and represents actors from across the market, government, and regulator to shape the development of a data-sharing and open data architecture for the water sector.
- Stream Steering Terms of Reference: https://ib1.org/terms/sgtor/
Advisory Group 1 (Market and User Needs) explores, prioritises and works through use cases that should be supported by Stream. This includes identifying defined users, their needs, mapping the data value chain and the broader ecosystem surrounding each use case.
Advisory Group 2 (Technical Requirements) is responsible for understanding the datasets, data sharing governance, and technical challenges and opportunities in accessing water data.
- Advisory Group Terms of Reference: https://ib1.org/terms/agtor/

IB1 launched the Steering Group in the Blueprint Phase to shape the governance structure of Stream and worked to establish a lasting set of robust governance measures and engagement opportunities ahead of the Implementation Phase.

In the Implementation and Sustain and Reach Phase, IB1 has continued to co-build an appropriate common framework for long-term collaboration, standards development, operational and legal capabilities to enable sector-wide and cross-sector data sharing.

Join the Stream Advisory Groups here

About Stream

Stream has been co-funded by Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge as a part of their Innovation Fund to encourage initiatives that help to tackle the biggest challenges facing the water sector: achieving net zero, protecting natural ecosystems, reducing leakage, and delivering value to society.

From 2022-2023, the Stream Blueprint phase identified the people, processes and technology options required to implement an Open Data Framework that provides the capabilities required to unlock the value of water sector data.

From 2023-2025, the Stream Implementation Phase came together to release the first open data set to be published under Stream, launch the platform, publish the National Storm Overflow Hub, and other priority use cases such as Catchment Data.

In 2025, the programme has transitioned to a sustain and reach phase to establish a long term model to ensure the longevity of Stream.