CARE-W comprises a suite of tools, providing the most cost-efficient system of maintenance and repair of water distribution networks, with the aim to guarantee a security of water supply that meets social, health, economic and environmental requirements.

Cities all over Europe spend in total about 1 billion Euro per year for urban network rehabilitation. This amount is supposed to increase in the coming decades, due to network ageing. Today, the rationale behind rehabilitation expenditure decisions is unclear, and in the best case based on practical experience (failure occurred, reactive approach). Up to now, management planning methods have been relatively poorly developed compared to the financial and technological challenge that the necessary upgrading of water pipelines really represents.