2023 started with a bang when Scottsdale cut off hauled water to Rio Verde Foothills, sending residents of the unincorporated community scrambling to get water.Residents tried everything from driving an hour to fill their water tanks at higher fees, to investing in costly wells and water filtration systems, to collecting rainwater in buckets to fulfill their basic needs.But as three-digit temperature days returned in mid-June, the Arizona Legislature passed and Gov. Katie Hobbs signed standpipe legislation creating a governmental entity with the power to enter into agreements to get water to the Foothills.The Rio Verde Foothills situation is just one of the big Arizona water stories of 2023.In water, ‘the enemy is the old way’Earlier in June, Gov. Hobbs unveiled a model projection and study indicating that over 100 years, approximately 4% of the demand for groundwater in the Phoenix metropolitan area will not be met without further action.In the wake of the unveiling, news reports explained that the state’s water agency will stop approving new home developments that rely solely on groundwater.That followed the do-or-die water conservation deal struck by Arizona, California, Nevada and the federal government in late May to keep the Colorado River from going dry.Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s commissioner for negotiations, offered this wake-up call leading up to the deal:“They need to realize that the enemy is not any organization, agency or part of the basin. The enemy is that the water is not there that they have been using. The enemy is the old way.”Data, AI must be part of our futureWhat’s missing in the media conversation about water is the less flashy but critical role that vastly improved data management will play in sustainability efforts.Arizona recently teamed up with the company I work for, Hitachi Ventara, to centralize data collection and automate analyses from 330,000 water resources in the state.We need more public-private partnerships like this, because accurate, up-to-date data is mandatory for informed decision-making.As issues arise:County supervisors want to do more about waterIt’s also imperative if we really want to steward the environment and create sustainable ways to live.The key is to deploy digital solutions that solve real problems — tech for tech’s sake won’t work.Tech can help us answer key questionsWe must connect the physical world of pipes, wells, reservoirs and aquifers with sensors and other hardware to the digital world of advanced AI, if we want better answer to simple questions like:Where’s the water coming from? Accurately measuring all existing and potential water sources is complex. Different parts of the Southwest must consider snow melt and river flow, groundwater and aquifers, reclamation and even cloud seeding and desalination as sources.How do you distribute that water most efficiently and fairly? Leaky, old municipal pipes are widespread in water and sewer lines across the nation. Small robots can now be sent through lines, proactively gathering data on erosion patterns to make AI-predicted repairs.How is water being used? Between 70% to 80% of water pulled from the Colorado River goes to agriculture — irrigating crops that provide the entire U.S. food for the winter. That makes scientific, data-driven water usage on farms absolutely critical. It’s also imperative that the private sector consider sharing with scientists and non-governmental organizations the data they have on water resources so those can be better managed, and vice versa.We need all stakeholders in the loop and using shared data to unlock its maximum positive impact.The old way is full of assumptions that must be hand-validated and monitored, which is costly and time consuming.As the future unfolds — and we move to secure the future of water for Grand Canyon State residents — the new, sustainable way must put abundant, correct and easily usable data front and center. Maggie Laird is head of Lumada Software Business & Corporate Sustainability atHitachi Vantara.
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