The global population is growing fast, and estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030.By 2025, about 1.8 billion people will be living in regions or countries with absolute water scarcity.
Water security is a major growing challenge for many countries today. Climate change will worsen the situation by altering hydrological cycles, making water more unpredictable and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts (World Bank).
Using technology, The Asian Development Bank in partnership with the Korean Government (through K-water) since 2016 has been improving water supply services in South Asia, through development of operational efficiency and financial sustainability in water utilities in South Asian countries based on smart drinking water management.
Globally there is a steady rise in the demand for IoT enabled Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) due to the multiple benefits they are offer such leak detection, real-time data collection and monitoring and machine to machine communications helping to curb issues with non-revenue water loss. Countries in South Asia such as in India are adopting advanced metering, for utilities to increase revenue through improved billing efficiency, enhanced water conservation and optimization of resources. The rise in initiatives such as Smart Cities are also increasing the demand for smart metering. Some municipalities;Kerala, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh are already implementing AMI's in partnership with technology companies such as IBM, Xylem etc. The smart water market in India is forecast to grow at CAGR of 14.7% from 2019 to 2025.
Another innovation gradually being deployed in the region to increase assess to clean drinking water is Drinkwell’s Water ATM using cloud-based automation, nanotechnology, and mobile apps.
In data scarce areas, machine learning and cloud computing can be used to detect locations of floods. Cloud to Street uses machine learning to maps floods in near real-time imagery and historically through satellite imagery using the Google Earth Engine. The data is used to monitor the population at risk and measure property and agriculture damages. Google has partnered with India Central Water Commision and developed a flood forecasting model using AI to predict flood occurrence and severity.
In Israel, the southern and eastern areas are characterized by an arid climate which exposes those regions to water scarcity. To tackle this challenge, they have turn to desalinization to have a reliable source of water. The country now gets more than 55% of its domestic water from desalination, which has helped to turn Israel, one of the world’s driest countries into a water giant. The Zuckerberg Institute founded at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, has conducted some pioneering research on new techniques in drip irrigation, water treatment and desalination
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Challenge: Climate Change
Climate change is increasing extreme weather conditions globally, in South Asia the sea surface temperatures, are changing the pattern of the monsoon and cyclone seasons increasing the occurrence of flooding and landslides in the region. In 2018 5 million people in Kerala the most southwestern State of India, were affected by extreme and prolonged rainfall, the monsoon caused widespread floods and more than 3,000 landslides across the state. These cause long-term disruption of transport systems in the region, resulting in economic setbacks affecting internal trade and regional integration (World Bank)
Combining historical and contemporary data on rainfall, river levels and flood simulations, Google , as part of its AI for Social Good effort has developed flood forecasting system which uses Machine Learning to create new forecast models, to provide an early warning system to citizens.
This was piloted in parts of India, but now covers the entire country and portions of Bangladesh, producing critical alerts and information to government and citizens in flood prone. The system can provide accurate alerts that allow people close to one day to prepare for the event. Information provided includes flood depth (when and how flooding will rise) for local areas, alerts are provided in different formats, with support for up to 9 languages.
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Challenge: Wastewater Management
Tech: Industrial IoT for Wastewater Management
From improving efficiency and monitoring water levels to identifying chemical leaks and regulating usage, there are many applications for IoT devices in the wastewater management space. For example, treatment facilities can install smart sensors at different points along the treatment process to monitor and collect data on temperature, water quality, turbidity, pressure changes, chemical levels etc.
In India, SmartTerra, through the use of artificial intelligence offers water and wastewater utilities offers information to reduce losses, assess network health and improve revenue. First pilot in India demonstrated a potential 3% revenue increase for the city’s utility.
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Challenge: Erosion / Sedimentation
Soil erosion is a frequent problem that has both on-site and off-site effects. Onsite effects include loss of inherent soil resources, collapse of soil structure, a decline in organic matter and nutrients in the soil, and a reduction in available soil moisture. Off-site effects are related to increases in sediment loading and the loss of nutrients adsorbed to the soil particles in the sediment. The consequent increases in sediment in the streamflow often reduces the capacity of rivers to deliver high-quality water to downstream users, increases the risk of flooding in river basins, reduces or blocks the flow of water through irrigation systems, and shortens the expected operational life of downstream reservoirs, Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an emerging remote sensing tool capable of acquiring high resolution spatial and sensing data, for measuring erosion and sediment concentrations. Remote sensing with UAVs has the potential to provide high quality aerial imagery over larger surface areas and provide data that can assist in regular site inspections.
Littoral Drift
Shorelines are under constant change as sediment is moved in response to wind, waves, currents, structures. This is called littoral drift or longshore drift and can have many impacts on communities as land is eroded or accreted at the coast, a process now further compounded by human activity and sea level rise. Some of these even cause transboundary concerns as actions in the coast of one country (e.g. a new port) could cause erosion in another country’s coast. This is why new regional initiatives (e.g. West Africa Coastal Areas or WACA Management Program ) are being undertaken to capture these common regional dimensions. Many complex models are often used to explore various scenarios to determine an appropriate course of action.
Tech: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are an emerging remote sensing tool capable of acquiring high resolution spatial and sensing data, for measuring erosion and sediment concentrations. Remote sensing with UAVs has the potential to provide high quality aerial imagery over larger surface areas and provide data that can assist in regular site inspections.
Tech: Using Cell Phone and Remote Sensing to Improve Agriculture Productivity
The Indus Basin Irrigation System developed approximately 70 years ago, only grew one , and now supports 2-3 different crop types. Farmer's practices are based on knowledge handed down helded down by elders that includes irrigation timing instead of using current scientific knowledge. The lack of knowledge causes farmers over irrigate their fields with groundwater since they believe it is better to be safe than sorry. For example, the Punjab and Sindh region's crop water requirements are 600 mm and 1,400 mm, respectively, while farmers were applying 2,200 mm of water . Approximately 60 percent of the total groundwater water usage is for agriculture. Excess water results in lower groundwater levels and crop yields. The average water use efficiency for rice is 0.45 kg/m3 of water compared to International standards of 0.71 kg/m3. In some areas, water use efficiency was low at 0.08 kg/m3. With increasing demands from the energy, industry, and food sector and constant surface volume, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) wanted to improve water management support to the farmers. PCRWR collaborated with the Sustainability, Satellites, Water, and Environment research group of the University of Washington to enhance crop yield and data dissemination. During a trial period in April 2016, where 700 farmers who grew bananas, wheat, rice, and cotton crop in the Indus Valley would receive weekly simple SMS text notifications. The message was your bananas do not need water due to sufficient precipitation, or your bananas need 2 inches of water. CRWR scaled up to 10,000 farmers in the Indus Basin. An example of how successful the program was that one farmer with 12 acres of land of growing wheat applied three irrigations and had a crop yield of 4,742, KG/ha. A neighboring farmer had seven irrigations and a crop yield of 4,149 kg/ha. Due to this success, the program will launch nationwide once cell phone coverage has been expanded.
Drones Planting Mangroves
Biocarbon Engineering, an ecosystem restoration company is using drones to plant 1 million mangroves in Myanmar. The process involves an assessment of assessment of topography and ground quality using a mapping drone. Thereafter, the data is analyzed, and the second swarm of drones are responsible for carrying out planting, dropping the seeds. The company is also working in Australia to rehabilitate and restore mining sites.
