Role of Big Data Analytics in Solving Water Problems
Just as access to speed is essential in today’s fast world owing to the deluge of mobile devices and the web, access to clean water is imperative for one’s good health. To date, water scarcity issues impact more than 40% of the global population, and about 2.2 billion people don’t have access to safely managed drinking water. Again with the coronavirus pandemic outbreak and moving restrictions, most of us have remained in our homes for the last few months. This pandemic has led to maximum water usage, adding to the challenge of living without access to safe water 24X7. Besides, most of the countries like India and Bangladesh have also endured the water crisis problem for a long time now. The scarcity of torrential rain, climate change, the onset of drought, surging demand for clean water, has put immense pressure on many businesses, municipalities, agriculture industry, and common people. As per the UNICEF report, states that less than 50 percent of the population in India has access to clean and safe drinking water. Also, some studies carried out by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) have predicted that the demand for potable water will outstrip supply by 40 percent by 2030-if steps are not taken.
Without the adequate infrastructure and efficient management to curb water access and shortage issues, millions of people and small businesses will keep enduring heavy losses. As per technology experts, the most efficient solution for retaining and saving water is by having an accurate, real-time understanding and view of water consumption and demand. And this set of information can be gleaned only with the power of data science and analytics. In fact, Gary Wong, one of the world’s foremost experts on water and water management, has suggested that utility companies should invest more in analytic tools and solutions with big data as the cornerstone in order to reduce wastage of water.
In this article, we’ll look into ways and understand how Analytics and Data Science can help in water conservation and management.
Table of Contents
-Why do we need Big Data Analytics to solve water scarcity problems
-Examples of how big data is being used to help improve water utilities
a) Minimize water leakage
b) Improve the quality of water
c) Reduce water wastage in the agricultural sector
-What’s the future of Data Science and Big Data Analytics in Water Management?
Why do we need Big Data Analytics to solve water scarcity problems?
The primary key to enabling big data analytics is through harnessing and integrating unsurmountable data that utilities have about water. Only in recent times, we see how this data is standardized and aggregated. The water sector can reap significant data benefits when they have organized and standardized their foundational baseline data from water standards, smart meters, indicators, and consumption patterns. Data standardization helps to integrate data collected for different purposes, ranging from satellite data to data collected for local water management. Analytics tools aids in the distribution and consumption of data from smart water meters to a dashboard, where utilities can effectively and monitor and manage water usage. For example, when the water department authorities detect any usual spike in water usage due to leaks or any other operational malfunctioning, they can initiate early action and fix the issue immediately.
How big data companies help improve water utilities?
Across the globe, there are many new companies that have harnessed the power of big data to bring sustainability in managing natural resources. These companies with their data science experts and Avant-grade analytics tools and techniques aggregate data across the entire water cycle to ensure sustainable use of water resources. Additionally, with the help of smart sensors and monitoring systems, they generate a large amount of real-time data, thereby providing a real-time view of water usage. Here are some examples to show analytics technology is helping to manage complex water problems
Minimize water leakage
Water leaks can be quite challenging to detect, and it takes a lot of elbow grease to find and fix a stubborn leakage in some remote location. The most effective known way to retain water is by minimizing water pressure. However, controlling the water flow for bigger cities is not as easy as it sounds, as it takes a lot of time and effort to scout the city’s entire water distribution channels. That’s when water data collated from the meter at specific time slots can play a vital role. Several companies around the globe provide leak sensing sensor technology to locate leaks. Instead of searching every place to find the leaks, one may use the data garnered from such sensors. The data generated by these systems can help authorities monitor interval data from residential, commercial, and industrial water meters. In addition, these data sets may help utility companies understand how much water is consumed or wasted. Utilizing the information generated by the sensor technology, cities can now reduce water leakage to a great extent. Water data can also detect scenarios of pipe bursts, thereby facilitating faster call-to-actions by the concerned authorities.
For example, Kamstrup’s leak detector’s analytics module collects acoustic noise data from water meters, thereby enabling you to locate leaks in service connections and distribution channels due to the changes in the acoustic noise levels.
Improve the quality of water
Water quality is one of the most important topics of discussion when it comes to overall health and wellbeing. However, in recent times, water quality has been degraded due to pollutants, chemicals from industries, and human and animal wastes. There are also reports of how lead contamination leads to severe developmental delays in children. Polluted water and pathogens can lead to significant health problems, which is why periodic evaluation and real-time monitoring of water quality are the need of the hour. Now, with the advances of big data and AI applications, data collected from intelligent sensors embedded into water systems facilitates the real-time diagnosis of water quality disturbances in water bodies. These sensors also provide data around intentional or operational intrusions, thus reinforcing water security.
For example, the city of Chicago implemented a predictive model that revealed information about the beaches in Chicago, which had high levels of E.coli bacteria. Supplemented by data science tools, authorities pulled data from Chicago beach inspections as well as from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They decided which beaches should be closed for the public due to the high concentration of this bacteria.
Reduce wastage of water in agriculture
The irrigation sector is, by far, the largest sector to use as well as wastewater in the world. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the agriculture industry uses 70% of the world’s freshwater and almost wastes 60% of water due to the leaky irrigation system and cultivation of crops that consume more water. While farmers do collate data related to water usage in their fields, they are not equipped to use this data to make informed decisions regarding water management. As the use of smart machines and sensors grows on farms and agriculture data collation gets structured, the irrigation industry has increasingly become data-driven and data-enabled. With the help of smart sensors ( chemical detection devices, biosensors, weather stations, etc.) and geospatial data analysis, farmers can now plan well. They can have an idea of how much water is needed for growing different crops and how much water they should allocate for other essential farming activities. In addition, data gathered around water usage can help farmers understand soil quality and climate influence, thus enabling them to plan adaptive and responsive water management approaches.
For example, since water continues to remain one of the most limiting factors in agriculture, a basic understanding of the water requirements by various soil types may prove beneficial for the farmers. Keeping that in mind, an analytics firm, Satyukt Analytics, helps farmers collect real-time soil moisture data using an algorithm that calculates the optimal amount of water required by each crop based on the soil type.
What’s the future of Data Science and Big Data Analytics in Water Management?
Now that we see data science approaches being applied to various domains and businesses- for instance, e-commerce sites implement data science concepts to track consumer’s buying patterns and offer hyper-personalized experience, the role of data science has evolved to solve global resources crises. While many industries have been harnessing the power of big data and analytics applications for smooth operations, there are many areas where analytics could penetrate and save natural resources like water. A substantial role of analytics is needed to ensure good water quality by limiting wastage and managing water consumption.
Knowing that there’s is a limited chance of deriving perfect data, analytics help is needed to improve data efficiency. Water utilities that have implemented analytics technology along recommend that optimization is a great way to get benefits from big data. The optimization is being used to identify and fix blockage and leakage, and to analyze water issues on a local scale. This strategy can enable local water management authorities to have optimized solutions that can reduce water wastage and provide clean and safe drinking water in every household. If calibrated in the right way, smart sensor technology with big data can offer a robust framework that can be used to fix imminent issues, such as weak infrastructure, blockage analysis, and guide utilities to achieve optimization for water conservation.
Besides, predicting water quality standards and locating contaminated water sources, and investigating leakages, data analysis with advanced algorithms can help a city solve its entire water scarcity problem. Though the government around the world is taking steps to alleviate water scarcity problems, the general public who is inclined can also help by using their expertise in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). They can come together to address the city’s water problems.
For example, citizen science is a new trend that creates a buzz, allowing experts from the general public to come up with practical solutions. In terms of water management, coders, statisticians, and people from water management backgrounds can collaborate with professional data scientists and solve complex technical problems related to data and address social-economic issues such as water conservation. While this action might take time to reap results, pro-bono work by big analytics firms may continue to unravel new solutions to address complex technical and social challenges and aid in conserving precious resources for the next generation
