The OneNYC Plan by Mayor de Blasio was released recently. In the OneNYC, one of its visions is about sustainability; it states “NYC will be the most sustainable big city in the world and global leader in the fight against climate change.” And one of the intelligent city signals I found was within the sustainability vision. There are six main goals within the sustainability and I will focus on the “Water Management.” The main purpose of this goal is to mitigate neighborhood flooding and offer high-quality water services. While reading its initiatives, I learned about NYC’s effort to install or repair 500 water fountains and water bottle refilling stations across the five boroughs. NYC is committed to providing adequate and easy-access water fountains not only to provide proper hydration and healthy water consumption but also to reduce place bottle use and pollutant emissions. Most importantly, it is costly for New Yorkers or visitors to buy water every time in New York City.
In order to make this process and utilize water fountains more efficiently, NYC promotes an existing phone application that “allows residents and visitors to find water fountains and stations around the city.” The app is called “NYC Water.” It helps users to locate different water fountains that are opened during the summer. Currently, this application is for locating water fountains. However, it will be a great way to start because the mobile app can ultimately improve the water service network. It will be easier for the city to detect where are dysfunctional water fountains are located. This app can be significant because it can be a trigger to encourage public engagement and communications between the public and the government in order to improve water service. It is important because using this app can enable for the public to access free water more easily.
