Bringing Advanced Information Technology to Water Management

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In this first issue of our new GreenBiz Reports series of research, IBM outlines the concept for an educational and perhaps advocacy organization focused on establishing the value of applying advanced sensing, information technology and modeling to water management in the USA.

Government, water agencies and utilities are responsible for the following, that for varying reasons they increasingly find problematic:

• Ensuring water availability at the required quality, while respecting the environment -- large areas of the U.S. either face or are now experiencing water stress, either from drought-induced surface water scarcity, perhaps exacerbated by climate change, or from the depletion of groundwater resources such as the Ogalalla aquifer. In areas such as North Florida/Georgia, the Missouri river and Sacramento River Delta, debate exists on how to balance human and environmental water needs.
• Ensuring water security -- detection and prevention of contamination, either from deliberate acts or as a consequence of environmental events.
• Replacing an ageing water infrastructure -- the U.S. has an average annual maintenance backlog of $23bn , and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) alone has a total water and levee infrastructure maintenance and renewal backlog of $38bn . Water attracts just 0.2 percent of the Federal public infrastructure investment budget, and this budget has itself declined from 3.9 percent of the Federal budget in 1960 to 2.6 percent today.
• Managing weather impacts -- as severe weather events become more common, this exacerbates the stresses just described, with increasing risk of outcomes such as levee failure, storm water overflows and pollution, and so on.

The underlying issue is frequently the lack of information in the right temporal and spatial granularity to support effective decision making. Even where the information does exist, it may be fragmented between multiple organizations and stakeholders , or those stakeholders may use different models and tools that prevent them from coming to agreed conclusions.

The full report is in plain-text below. you can also download the report to learn more and to get involved.

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Bringing Advanced Information Technology to Water Management -- Proposed Educational Organization

Introduction

This paper outlines the concept for an educational and perhaps advocacy organization focused on establishing the value of applying advanced sensing, information technology and modeling to water management in the USA. It solicits interest in joining with IBM to create such an organization (labeled “WaterITOrg” in this paper for convenience -- this is not its intended title). IBM is not proposing to lead WaterITOrg, and is keen to ensure that WaterITOrg is entirely open in terms both of its membership (which could include IBM’s competitors), and the technologies and standards that it promotes.

Problem Statement

Government, water agencies and utilities are responsible for the following, that for varying reasons they increasingly find problematic:

• Ensuring water availability at the required quality, while respecting the environment -- large areas of the US either face or are now experiencing water stress, either from drought-induced surface water scarcity, perhaps exacerbated by climate change, or from the depletion of groundwater resources such as the Ogalalla aquifer. In areas such as North Florida/Georgia, the Missouri river and Sacramento River Delta, debate exists on how to balance human and environmental water needs.

• Ensuring water security -- detection and prevention of contamination, either from deliberate acts or as a consequence of environmental events.

• Replacing an ageing water infrastructure -- the US has an average annual maintenance backlog of $23bn, and the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) alone has a total water and levee infrastructure maintenance and renewal backlog of $38bn. Water attracts just 0.2% of the Federal public infrastructure investment budget, and this budget has itself declined from 3.9% of the Federal budget in 1960 to 2.6% today.

• Managing weather impacts -- as severe weather events become more common, this exacerbates the stresses just described, with increasing risk of outcomes such as levee failure, storm water overflows and pollution, and so on. The underlying issue is frequently the lack of information in the right temporal and spatial granularity to support effective decision making. Even where the information does exist, it may be fragmented between multiple organizations and stakeholders, or those stakeholders may use different models and tools that prevent them from coming to agreed conclusions. The Federal Government has recognized this underlying issue.

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