In-Situ and Remote Sensing

Testing for E. coli in real time

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 21:24:20 +0000

Testing for E. coli in real time Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/13/2022 - 15:24

A new water quality sensor developed by engineers at CU Boulder can quickly, cheaply and accurately monitor for the presence of E. coli bacteria in water supplies, an issue that may affect more people in the U.S. and around the world in the future. Emily Bedell (PhDEnvEngr’22) is lead author on this research, recently published in Water Research, and a fellow at the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering.

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Pair of CU Boulder PhD students publish research to address growing drought issues in Africa

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 16:24:59 +0000

Pair of CU Boulder PhD students publish research to address growing drought issues in Africa Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/29/2022 - 10:24

CU Boulder PhD candidates Katie Fankhauser and Denis Muthike are lead authors of new research on our ability to forecast, mitigate and quickly respond to increasingly intense drought conditions in Africa due to climate change.

Fankhauser is seeking a PhD in environmental engineering while Muthike is working towards a PhD in environmental studies. Both are advised by Associate Professor Evan Thomas and have close ties to CU Boulder’s Mortenson Center in Global Engineering.

Fankhauser is the lead author of a paper in Science of The Total Environment that identifies the impacts of high groundwater use in response to drought in the Horn of Africa. The paper, which was co-authored by Muthike, investigates satellite data, remote-sensors and machine learning analysis tools.

Muthike is the lead author of a paper in the Journal of Hydrometeorology that validates and compares satellite-based rainfall tools over a variety of conditions to better understand their reliability and validity. Fankhauser is a co-author on the paper.

We asked both about the research, their time at CU Boulder and where their work goes from here.

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State of California Tackles Drought with IoT & Blockchain

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 21:40:10 +0000

State of California Tackles Drought with IoT & Blockchain Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/07/2019 - 14:40

Leveraging Satellites and the Internet of Things, SweetSense Facilitates Water Service Access in Kenya and Water Resource Management in California, USAID AgriLinks, May, 2019

Colorado senator wants to study blockchain for water rights management, TNW, March, 2019

Blockchain is overhyped, but it’s also perfect for California’s drought problem, Digital Trends, March, 2019

IBM Pilots Blockchain and IoT Sensor Solution To Track Sustainable Groundwater Usage In California, Forbes, February 8, 2019

State of California Tackles Drought with IoT & Blockchain, IBM, February 8, 2019

The Freshwater Trust, IBM Research SweetSense Inc. and the �鶹��Ƶ aim to make groundwater usage sustainable

SAN FRANCISCO, 7 February 2019: The Freshwater Trust (TFT), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems, is partnering with IBM Research and SweetSense Inc., a provider of low-cost satellite connected sensors, to pilot technologies which can accurately monitor and track groundwater use in one of the largest and most at risk aquifers in North America. Additional research support will be provided by the �鶹��Ƶ.

Jointly funded by the Water Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the project’s scientists and engineers will demonstrate how the blockchain and remote Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can accurately measure groundwater usage transparently, and in real-time.

The sensors will transmit water extraction data to orbiting satellites and then to the IBM Blockchain Platform hosted in the IBM Cloud. The blockchain will record of all data exchanges or transactions made in an append-only, immutable ledger. The blockchain also uses “smart contracts,” whereby transactions are automatically executed when the conditions are matched.

Through a web-based dashboard, water consumers, including farmers; investors and regulators will all be able to monitor and track the use of groundwater to demonstrate how sustainable pumping levels can be achieved through the trading of groundwater use shares in the State of California. Individual users who require groundwater amounts beyond their share will be able to “purchase” groundwater shares from users who do not require all of their supply at a market-regulated rate.

For example:

A strawberry farmer is planning to take the season off to prepare for an organic crop the following harvest. The farmer can trade or sell her water credits on the blockchain to another farmer.
Due to a particularly dry season, a winery realizes it will need additional ground water to avoid losing the vintage. The vintner can purchase additional water shares, without negatively impacting the aquifer.

“The future success of these sustainability plans hinges on being able to track and report groundwater use, and likely will also require a robust way to trade groundwater shares as well” said Alex Johnson, Freshwater Fund Director with TFT. “Our strategic intent is to harness new technologies to develop a system that makes getting groundwater more sustainable, collaborative, accurate and transparent process, which is why we are using the blockchain. We now have the project team and funding to do it, and a strong network of partners in the region that are open to an initial testing and building phase.”

“Based on a research project in Kenya with USAID, the Millennium Water Allianceand other partners we are now applying our expertise in building decision support systems for water management for surface and groundwater data aggregation, workflow optimization and analytics to address similar challenges in California. With the addition of the blockchain we can bridge critical trust and transparency gaps making it possible to build a robust, scalable and cost-efficient platform for managing precious groundwater supplies anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Solomon Assefa, Vice President, Emerging Market Solutions and Director, IBM Research – Africa.

The group will pilot the system in northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an area often referred to as the “nexus of California’s statewide water system.” The river delta covers 1,100 square miles and provides water to the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal and southern California and supports dozens of legally protected fish, plant and animal species. In addition, nearly 75% of this land is used for agriculture.

The sensor technology is provided by SweetSense Inc, which is currently monitoring the groundwater supplies for over a million people in Kenya and Ethiopia, which plans to scale to 5 million by the end of the year. The sensor data are transmitted over satellite networks to an online data analytics platform.

“By remotely monitoring groundwater use using our sensors, we’re able to help improve and maintain sustainable access to water supplies for people, farmers, and livestock. The work we’re doing in Africa is directly translatable to California,” said Evan Thomas, CEO of SweetSense and Mortenson Chair of Global Engineering & Resilience at the �鶹��Ƶ. “Our research team at the University of Colorado will assist in modeling groundwater use through the sensor data and satellite detected rainfall and weather correlations.”

The collaboration began in response to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which was signed into California law in 2014. SGMA mandated the creation of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), local groups that are responsible for ensuring regional groundwater supplies are sustainably managed. The GSAs are charged with developing and implementing a plan to make their local groundwater usage sustainable by 2040.

Since 2016, TFT has built multiple programs in the basin. In response to another bill, Senate Bill 88, TFT developed a measurement method for surface water diversion that addresses the unique qualities of the Northern Delta region. In 2017, 148 surface water diversions covering more than 29,000 farmed acres in the region — including wine grapes, pears, corn, alfalfa, safflower, tomatoes and wheat — had enrolled in the five-year study. For groundwater concerns in the same area, TFT helped support the formation of the Northern Delta Groundwater Sustainability Agency. This means 17 local agencies formed into one integrated agency and have begun work on a unified plan for sustainably managing groundwater use across a single aquifer to achieve outcomes together rather than work at cross-purposes. These agencies are understaffed, so TFT provides the capacity to gather and analyze data and develop effective sustainability measures.

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Innovations in WASH Impact Measures

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:41:16 +0000

Innovations in WASH Impact Measures Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/28/2016 - 11:41

Water & Sanitation Measurement Technologies & Practices to Inform the Sustainable Development Goals

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at its core. A dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) declares a commitment to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Monitoring progress toward this goal will be challenging: direct measures of water and sanitation service quality and use are either expensive or elusive. However, reliance on household surveys poses limitations and likely overstated progress during the Millennium Development Goal period.

In Innovations in WASH Impact Measures: Water and Sanitation Measurement Technologies and Practices to Inform the Sustainable Development Goals, we review the landscape of proven and emerging technologies, methods, and approaches that can support and improve on the WASH indicators proposed for SDG target 6.1, “by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all,” and target 6.2, “by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.”

Although some of these technologies and methods are readily available, other promising approaches require further field evaluation and cost reductions. Emergent technologies, methods, and data-sharing platforms are increasingly aligned with program impact monitoring. Improved monitoring of water and sanitation interventions may allow more cost-effective and measurable results. In many cases, technologies and methods allow more complete and impartial data in time to allow program improvements. Of the myriad monitoring and evaluation methods, each has its own advantages and limitations. Surveys, ethnographies, and direct observation give context to more continuous and objective electronic sensor data.

Overall, combined methodologies can provide a more comprehensive and instructive depiction of WASH usage and help the international development community measure our progress toward reaching the SDG WASH goals.

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Citation

“Thomas, Evan; Andrés, Luis Alberto; Borja-Vega, Christian; Sturzenegger, Germán. 2018. Innovations in WASH Impact Measures : Water and Sanitation Measurement Technologies and Practices to Inform the Sustainable Development Goals. Directions in Development—Infrastructure;. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29099 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29099

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