Clean Water and Sanitation
Safe, potable water continues to be a challenge worldwide. It is estimated that 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. Companies are looking for ways that data and analytics can help solve this challenge.
It is estimated by the World Wildlife Fund that agriculture uses 70% of the world’s fresh water and that it wastes almost 60% of that water due to leaky irrigation systems and the cultivation of crops that overconsume water. Today’s farmers are starting to deploy smart sensors throughout these irrigation systems to support real time data collection. By analyzing this data, they can quickly identify leaks and breaks in their water distribution system; the quicker these are fixed, the less their irrigation systems waste water, leaving clean, fresh water in the system to be used elsewhere to eliminate water scarcity.
In addition, farmers are using data collected from the soil combined with data associated with the conditions needed for their crops to optimize watering plans. By leveraging analytics, farmers can preserve water and work to produce an optimal yield on their land.
Some crops require a significant amount of water for growing, such as rice. Historically, rice production required that a four inch level of water was always maintained on the crop. An alternative method called alternating wetting and drying (AWD) was developed but required that farmers keep track of the water levels of all areas of their land. Manual data collection and analysis made this AWD process labor intensive. Recently, Whitaker Farms in Arkansas partnered with AT&T to install pumps and sensors on their farms so they can monitor the amount of water they provide to their rice crops. These sensors enable 24 hour monitoring and automated management of the amount of water they need to provide for their rice crops. This step alone has reduced their water use by 60% and their pump energy use by 25%.
Affordable and Clean Energy
Energy is fundamental to our everyday lives, but inefficient energy has a high propensity to create pollution and cause havoc on our climate. Finding affordable and sustainable alternative sources of energy is critical for our future. It is also important to effectively conserve the energy that we have from traditional energy sources to minimize supply needs and reduce pollution.
Two of the main sources of alternative energy today, solar and wind energy, are reliant on specific weather conditions. Today, machine learning can be used with inputs from satellite imagery and historical weather data to make highly accurate weather forecasts. With a clearer picture of the forecasted weather, energy production can be accurately predicted and optimized.
One method being used to optimize energy consumption is a concept called non intrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM). With the advent of the Internet of Things and smart sensors, power companies are able to monitor the energy consumption of appliances across the grid and can use machine learning to identify patterns of use. With these data patterns, machine learning models, and smart devices, automated optimizations can be deployed to conserve energy and lighten the load on the overall energy grid. Appliances can be deactivated when not needed or can be transitioned to a lighter operating mode to provide adequate performance with less energy impact.
Life Below Water
The ocean is our planet’s largest ecosystem, but it is also still a great mystery. SDG 14 focuses on protecting this ecosystem and the life that exists within it.
The Nippon Foundation took this development goal to heart and started the Seabed 2030 project. The goal is to leverage a combination of satellite maps, sensors aboard ships, and underwater submersibles to gather millions of data points that will enable this mapping. Their goal is to have a complete picture of the ocean floor by the year 2030. Combining this data with analytics helps us better understand how the layout of the ocean impacts our climate and helps us create a symbiotic relationship with the ocean and its immense ecosystem.
Final Thoughts
In the end, these 17 goals are a significant challenge. Solutions have the potential of ensuring our continued success as a population on earth. Because they are big challenges, they will require big ideas and innovation from across multiple domains. As a society, this is a great opportunity for companies and governments to fully leverage data and analytics as a bedrock component of how they will achieve these 2030 targets