The Role Of Big Data In Water Resource Management: Predicting And Preventing Crises
By Ainsley Lawrence
Imagine a world that is not plagued by water crises, where everyone — regardless of location, regardless of socio-economic status, regardless of race or religion — has all the water they need. For many of us who have grown up in areas where access to clean, fresh water is not guaranteed, such a world is difficult to conceive.
Yet, thanks to rapidly advancing technology, a world without water scarcity might become a reality. In particular, the widespread adoption of Big Data has the potential to revolutionize water resource management, expanding the possibilities of water-related work and altering the development of water systems to improve sustainability in both agriculture and metropolitan areas.
Understanding Big Data
Big Data is most easily understood as a large amount of complex data. Though large datasets have been collected and stored since the early days of computing, it wasn’t until about 2005 that organizations began to recognize the massive volumes of data generated online and the potential value that data may have. Today, all sorts of organizations collect data in the hopes that analysis will reveal insights they can use to improve their processes, products, or services.
Of course, working with Big Data is not simple. While regular data might be easy for a single person to manage on a standard computing device, Big Data requires specialized software and hardware. Organizations need to invest in tools for data collection and cleaning, data storage solutions, and applications for analyzing and visualizing data.
Increasingly, Big Data drives the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, as machine learning algorithms can sift through data to find actionable insights with greater speed and accuracy. Additionally, because data is so valuable, organizations must invest in robust cloud security solutions to protect any sensitive information contained in their datasets.
Big Data is only useful when organizations invest properly in the tools necessary to work with it. Perhaps increasing evidence of the power of Big Data to save lives might compel water management organizations to make necessary investments in Big Data in the near future.
Harnessing Big Data To Thwart Water Crises
Water crises are health crises. Scarcity, hygiene, and sanitation are responsible for the suffering of billions of people around the world, millions of whom will die every year as a result of poor quality or access to water. Any effort to end water crises could dramatically improve the health and well-being of most of the people on Earth.
As more of the world’s population gravitates toward large urban centers, solutions for water management increasingly focus on delivering and conserving water in municipal settings. However, because agriculture assumes such a significant portion of water consumption, the prevention of water crises must involve smarter and more equitable water use in agricultural settings. There are several ways water providers may implement Big Data to combat issues like water sanitation and scarcity. Some of the most noteworthy applications of Big Data include:
Forecasting water supply and quality
Big Data can help researchers track shifts in water sources, which may help indicate when regions will experience scarcity or reductions in water quality. As the climate changes, new regions may be subject to seasonal droughts or issues like algae blooms that impact water access.
Analysis of weather patterns may help agencies better predict the next zones to be affected by water crises so resources can be allocated appropriately to prevent disease and death. Forecasting is a complex process that benefits from the application of AI, which can analyze much greater quantities of complex data and arrive at accurate conclusions with greater speed.
Monitoring water resources in real time
Real-time monitoring can help agencies recognize and respond to potential causes of water crises with greater speed, reducing the impact of poor water quality and protecting populations from the effects of scarcity. Continuous monitoring can also help agencies track unexpected water crises as they unfold, providing valuable information that may benefit future water resource management projects.
Analyzing data as soon as it is generated requires faster tools, such as advanced fiber optics networks, which can handle much higher bandwidths to transmit large amounts of data from collection sites to locations for analysis.
Improving stewardship of water resources
Every drop of water counts, even in areas not currently impacted by water crises. Big Data can help water management organizations better understand the details of water usage, such as how much water is being used and for what. With this information, utility companies can make smarter decisions regarding water allocation to ensure equitable access to clean, fresh water. Already, municipal water departments are moving toward Big Data to aid in this effort, installing technologies like digital meter reading systems that allow for continuous monitoring of water use at individual residences and buildings.
Using Big Data To Fight Climate Change
As the population increases around the world, the demand for water also increases. Unfortunately, our sources of water have been dwindling; humanity is removing groundwater at rates faster than it can naturally refill, and rising sea levels are increasing the salinity of many freshwater systems, making them unusable by human populations. As climate change intensifies, more regions around the world will be affected by water scarcity, so it is imperative that we develop solutions to our water consumption issues as soon as possible.
Big Data has long been a valuable tool in the struggle to stop climate change. First, it has demonstrated incontrovertible proof of the shifting climate, and second, it has provided potential solutions to slow and reverse the damage. By implementing Big Data solutions to use water more wisely, we can work to preserve and replenish natural freshwater systems, reducing the frequency of climate change-related water crises.
Anything we can do to predict and prevent water-related crises will be valuable in the coming years. Though Big Data has been an essential tool for business management for decades, water management agencies are only just beginning to recognize how many lives may be saved by implementing Big Data systems and solutions and putting an end to water crises for all time.