The Google Maps of water use? The key is intelligent use of data

Let me ask you a query: Do you recognize your tapwater well? Chances are, you might have additional info on that bottle of mineral water than you do about what’s coming from your tap.
Digital technologies as of late are serving to us map water. One such innovation is IOT, or the Internet of Things. It’s an inter-connected gadget of sensors or units that relay knowledge. IOT can alternate the arena.

But the issue isn't a lack of records; now we have an issue placing records to paintings. According to mavens, we live in a data-rich however informationpoor water world. The knowledge may be hidden in hardto-access databases. It’s no surprise then, India is a country of thin, inaccessible records. However, if the similar records had been shared brazenly, we can have a game-changer on our fingers. Imagine using an built-in water website online as a part of a house-hunting effort. One may just entry area-specific water tendencies. For example, when picking a house within the suburbs, lets learn the way many quality violations the native water supplier has had over the last 5 years.

Recently, an international meet — hosted by way of the Aspen Institute — brought together mavens on water control, giant records and chances. The discussion got here up with some attention-grabbing ideas.

The focal point used to be public and governmental water records — the knowledge gathered by way of public water agencies. Such records are usually gathered at nice price and energy however are most commonly unusable. Instead, the knowledge should be open, or “discoverable” in machine-readable codecs.

This public records may just really be the platform for the Internet of Water (IOW). Think of this on the subject of something like Google Maps for water.

IOW must be allowed to evolve just like the web did — via sharing and integrating wisdom; It must now not be managed or regulated by way of one agency. It needs to be a community of inter-linked records shared between areas to allow sustainable control of water provide.

The Water Data Exchange, as an example, integrates knowledge on water availability and use. Similarly, the National Groundwater Monitoring Network within the United States, integrates groundwater records. These networks supply customers with records on what’s available. As a ways as water is anxious, that knowledge is as treasured as the liquid itself.

Next, according to the Aspen meet, we need integration of information hubs. This integration will shape IOW — the principle structure that brings together all the working portions. The IOW can help in making sense of all the records available. It can generate tendencies, statistics or even cause alarms.

After the integration, two things can then occur.

First, we will develop gear to forecast problems. We may just even have technologies to discover and repair leaks in pipes. According to research, a normal trendy home loses up to 75,000 litres to leaky pipes.


Second, an IOW based on public records can lend a hand individuals and corporations generate their very own records sets — it would really democratise water.


Today, we live within the age of “anything else is imaginable”. We are looking to arrange mass transit methods connecting complete towns; gardens atop skyscrapers; machines that can discover illnesses; and food that can remedy illnesses. It’s handiest during the sort of length of innovation, can we look at saving what makes our planet distinctive.


Information has the power to secure our assets. We simply wish to know what to do with knowledge.


The writer is president, Society for Environment Education Research And Management
The Google Maps of water use? The key is intelligent use of data The Google Maps of water use? The key is intelligent use of data Reviewed by Kailash on March 09, 2018 Rating: 5
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