N1005 IBM Research: smarter water

IBM DeepCurrent Predicts Environmental Changes in 3-D

<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">From ocean bays in Ireland to fresh water lakes in New York, IBM “smarter water” scientists have developed a way to forecast the health of bodies of water — in 3-D. <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/labs/ireland/applications/deep_current.html"><span style="color: blue;">IBM DeepCurrent</span></a> laps up data from coastlines to underwater depths via sensors attached to everything from buoys to tagged fish. It creates 3-D models that can zoom in on a location or event to provide accurate predictions of environmental dynamics, such as salt runoff or invasive species. So, business owners, environmental agencies and public administrators can use it to improve their accuracy in marine monitoring to better manage and forecast for potentially destructive environmental events.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuMIbNsUKtIsASlM4AeIaXXyKwU01yVcZlEpZyrRxmDxaSCvs-aQc3RXh5LEnAR4t0qBeqriaN4JMSSAgsDy4tXWLmrZKb3RFlaabfUOsW00poqx3JbeUGU6EfZu8BWV7MdBxRgL30SBQ/s1600/DSC_0253.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuMIbNsUKtIsASlM4AeIaXXyKwU01yVcZlEpZyrRxmDxaSCvs-aQc3RXh5LEnAR4t0qBeqriaN4JMSSAgsDy4tXWLmrZKb3RFlaabfUOsW00poqx3JbeUGU6EfZu8BWV7MdBxRgL30SBQ/s200/DSC_0253.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">Emanuele Ragnoli</span></td></tr></tbody></table>“IBM DeepCurrent is a geophysical fluid dynamics tool that focuses on fluid motion in the earth’s water systems. It simulates the flow of water and corresponding changes in its properties, such as variations in temperature, salinity and nutrient concentrations."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">“And it can also tell us about water flows, water quality, and other environmental parameters by using physical models, machine learning and control theory algorithms, combined with sensor data, in a particular coastal area,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/emanuele-ragnoli/0/b57/a33" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Emanuele Ragnoli</span></a>, an IBM Environmental Analytics researcher in Dublin, Ireland. </span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /><a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/smarterwater/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Galway Bay</span></a> is a popular coastal area on the west coast of Ireland that’s been eulogized in movies to music, but it's under threat of pollution, flooding, and other environmental factors. Emanuele’s team is applying IBM DeepCurrent prediction and modelling to study the live dynamics of oceanic flows into the bay, detecting the oceanic flow’s interaction with freshwater discharges, integrating radar imagery of surface currents, and even monitoring the wind-driven currents to offer insights into the ecological planning and economic management of the bay. Now, scientists can see, in a 3-D model, how live weather data will impact everything from tributaries into the bay, to how currents distribute marine nutrients — or contaminants — across the bay. So far, IBM DeepCurrent deployment has shown a 10 to 20 percent error reduction of predicted flows within the bay, relative to past sensor measurements.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EXpOUcpKOTk/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EXpOUcpKOTk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">On the other side of the Atlantic, IBM DeepCurrent researchers examined the effects of Hurricane Sandy on Chesapeake Bay, which straddles the states of Virginia and Maryland. The team combined a disparate array of sensor data with model simulations to reproduce the changes of water elevation during the movement of this super storm, and mapped the resulting environmental effects it had on cities and regions around the bay. The deployment validated the performance of the system in extreme events. Now, the team hopes to apply IBM DeepCurrent to similar situations in real-time to assist city managers and urban planners with emergency planning and management.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The coastal ocean represents perhaps the most complex natural system, subject to a nonlinear and chaotic set of conditions that make predictions extremely challenging. The accurate quantification of flow processes in the upper layers of the ocean requires a holistic consideration of system-forcing variables and accurate field sampling data."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But this is exactly what IBM DeepCurrent does. It provides industry, local government and relevant stakeholders with real-time information to better manage the coastal environment and mitigate anthropogenic impacts,” said <a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=ie-FEARDONN" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Fearghal O’Donncha</span></a>, IBM Environmental Analytics researcher.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />  <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60QtIiauyeozPCyeFS47-l7_1tpVAGaEFiW6fUCmscES1SB4WgJcwlswrbnZ_Oc79G2MmTzZD9icNToygIXKFeP_qFt_-wvXJjk-gNYGeA9Gtmj24-CQbL85mbOh7L3XJ-Z3gQ2KfUaA/s1600/DSC_0254.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60QtIiauyeozPCyeFS47-l7_1tpVAGaEFiW6fUCmscES1SB4WgJcwlswrbnZ_Oc79G2MmTzZD9icNToygIXKFeP_qFt_-wvXJjk-gNYGeA9Gtmj24-CQbL85mbOh7L3XJ-Z3gQ2KfUaA/s200/DSC_0254.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">Fearghal O'Donncha</span></td></tr></tbody></table>IBM DeepCurrent’s latest effort is its first in fresh water: the <a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/10/predicting-lake-georges-future.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">IBM Jefferson Project</span></a> at New York’s Lake George. The "Queen of American Lakes" is threatened by salt, algae, and invasive marine species affecting the fish and vegetation. And IBM DeepCurrent's role in the joint project with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the FUND for Lake George is to help study the circulation of salt runoff from de-icing nearby roads in the winter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">In October, as part of the European Commission’s Frontier and Emerging Technologies initiative, the team from Ireland will use IBM DeepCurrent to model the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The work will not only help further validate IBM DeepCurrent’s predictive capabilities, but also help continue to account for oil still in the gulf five years after the deadly explosion. <br /> </span></div>

From ocean bays in Ireland to fresh water lakes in New York, IBM “smarter water” scientists have developed a way to forecast the health of b...

Using analytics to get smart about water

6:10 AM N1000 0

<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Profile of a scientist: Ernesto Arandia</i></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGV1xcXxX7MrqMnBE6bpAuQ-_f64e_vNX5zY2gTifPvrphCf_yYBfrORWteXQo-g4QRra5BF0VlL97xCNpi-re7jekX7CSwJquz0zCow1PgIv30JVbq5xJbjtiZ5J2mNTyUfqaZk_x3U/s1600/ernestopic.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGV1xcXxX7MrqMnBE6bpAuQ-_f64e_vNX5zY2gTifPvrphCf_yYBfrORWteXQo-g4QRra5BF0VlL97xCNpi-re7jekX7CSwJquz0zCow1PgIv30JVbq5xJbjtiZ5J2mNTyUfqaZk_x3U/s200/ernestopic.PNG" width="171" /></a></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><span style="color: #0563c1;"><a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=ie-ERNESTOA">Ernesto Arandia</a></span></u><span style="color: #333333;">, a data scientist with the IBM Smarter Water team in Dublin, Ireland, grew up half a planet away, in land-locked Bolivia. It was this life high in the Andes, where water availability is an issue for all citizens that spurred his interest in water management, and the pursuit of a PhD in Hydraulic Science at the University of Cincinnati. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">He parlayed his research and creation of tools to manage water usage via smart meters and demand forecasting into a job with IBM Research-Ireland in 2013. Today, he is working on two research applications, a Water Network Analytics Toolkit and <a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/analytics-helping-cities-and-citizens.html">iWIDGET</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333;">. Both of which deal with water demand and management by reducing cost and waste.</span></span></span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333;"></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What interested you in the IBM Research-Ireland Smarter Cities Technology Centre (SCTC)?</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA:</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> My interests are in modeling urban water and environmental systems, stochastic processes, and data mining, as well as the design and optimization of hydraulic and civil infrastructure. With my civil and environmental engineering background, the IBM lab in Dublin seemed the perfect place to pursue my research on sustainability projects in the area of water management.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What did you focus on for your PhD at the University of Cincinnati?</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin: 13.9pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA: </span></b><span style="color: #333333;">My research in Cincinnati involved experimental and computational research for accurate estimation of real-time water usage, measured by smart meters. It was part of an EPA-funded project for the development of a contaminant warning system after 9/11, which required modelling contaminant transport and water quality in water distribution systems. The main goal was to develop a fine resolution model capable of predicting how water is used in an urban water network across space and time. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 13.9pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">The experimental part involved setting up fixed monitoring stations to collect smart meter data from thousands of utility customers. Cincinnati Water Works was one of the first utilities in the US to fully adopt smart meters in their metro area – which created a unique research opportunity for me. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 13.9pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">My first challenge was to find areas where the stations could monitor the consumption of a sample of users as large and as diverse as possible. This required a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis of topography, demographics and socio-economics. The data collection stage took about two years and provided a dataset rich enough to understand, characterize, and represent water usage. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 13.9pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">One of the main outcomes of the project was a model for synthetic generation of demands that vary periodically and resemble real smart meter demands. Another outcome was a model to forecast water demand aggregated at useful scales, which can be used to estimate and forecast water consumption in an urban water network in real time.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What was the first project you worked on after joining the Smarter Water team?</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #70ad47;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbBUWbjoXwmVilr2M7H85AXvXmTrYf1crXIFJNc-fH6ndl7MBHAwL4weNIrbTYCeTZnqVits2ORB2ENjLnbUICU7wiMeTBA8NSsxvfB5zwrkb_tkLx-2ry_dyEfU8IrY1P0W12n34pYg/s1600/bblawn-team-pic-lowRes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbBUWbjoXwmVilr2M7H85AXvXmTrYf1crXIFJNc-fH6ndl7MBHAwL4weNIrbTYCeTZnqVits2ORB2ENjLnbUICU7wiMeTBA8NSsxvfB5zwrkb_tkLx-2ry_dyEfU8IrY1P0W12n34pYg/s320/bblawn-team-pic-lowRes.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pictured Smarter Water Team L-R:</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joe Sawaya-Naoum, Ernesto Arandia,</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bradley Eck and Fabian Wirth</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA:</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> Our Smarter Water team entered a challenge posed by the Water Distribution Systems Analysis Conference called the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705814022681">Battle of Background Leakage Assessment for Water Networks (BBLAWN)</a>. BBLAWN asked for a methodology for recommending changes to the design and operation of a water distribution system to minimize total expenditure, while meeting service requirements. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Our entry paper, called</span> <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705814022759" target="_blank">A Simulation-Optimization Approach for Reducing Background Leakage in Water Systems</a>,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"> detailed a hydraulic model that simulates background leakage, custom implementations of heuristic algorithms, and optimization solvers. The solution methodology we proposed decomposed the overall problem into smaller more tractable problems aimed at a single type of decision. We found that examining each problem individually had the advantage of simplifying implementation of software and interpretation of results, and allowing parts of the problem to be examined in parallel. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">The annual expenditure of the simulated town (called “C-Town”) was €3.9 million, but our models were able to reduce this to €1.5 million. This took into account both capital expenditure (rehab and infrastructure such as replacing pumps, pipes, valves, tanks) and operational expenditure (electricity costs as well as environmental penalties for wastage). Our main recommendation to "C-Town" was to invest about €600,000 to correct background leakage issues. This greatly reduced the amount of water loss in the network, as well as costs such as environmental penalties. This solution illustrates what a city could achieve in terms of managing leakage and overall operations.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Our work paid off as we won the competition for having the best combination of solution methodology, and economy of proposed infrastructural and management changes.</span></span><b><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></b><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What are you working on now?</span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA: </span></b><span style="color: #333333;">I am currently working on a Water Networks Analytics Toolkit. It provides decision support for a range of operational and planning problems on water networks and building blocks for new solutions. It's a</span> web-based application that knows the optimal time to replace mechanical equipment such as pumps and meters; calculates water bills under various pricing schemes; and makes adaptive water pricing recommendations.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I am also involved with a project called <a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/analytics-helping-cities-and-citizens.html">iWIDGET</a>, which uses<span style="color: black;"> analytics and smart meters to gather real-time data on water and related energy usage. The aim of the project is to improve the management of urban water demand by reducing waste, providing utilities with deeper insights into end-user demand, and ultimately reducing customer water and energy costs. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">iWIDGET </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">provides information to householders to help them reduce their water usage, and also provides utility companies better visibility of their customers’ usage. This improved visibility lets the utility perform more accurate demand forecasting, and alert customers of suspected leaks. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What is the future of smarter water management?</span></b></span></span> <br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA:</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> Water is a constrained resource, so utilities have the dual task of reducing losses through leaks in the network as well as reducing overall consumption. The best way to tackle these issues is by integrating government regulation, customer behavior and the utility’s own approach to improving infrastructure and measurement of usage. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Water utilities can learn from the energy and utilities sector, as it has a more highly developed model for pricing and demand management. The energy sector uses, for instance, an effective pricing mechanism based on “time of use” which means consumers use less power at peak times to reduce the chance of an outage. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Energy suppliers and distributors are also more proactively optimising their networks, using demand forecasting to balance energy supply (including renewables) with consumer demand. The water utilities should adapt and add to these components from the energy model instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">What is your advice to future water scientists? </span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">EA: </span></b><span style="color: #333333;">I see great opportunities to do joint research with scientists working in the energy domain. I think this collaboration can lead to new and more effective methodologies for water and energy management. It can also yield new combined strategies to improve water and energy efficiency. The data to support such cross-discipline research is increasingly becoming available and it is well known that systems cannot be fully described in total isolation. For instance, planning the optimal rehabilitation of a water network cannot be approached effectively with disregard for optimal electricity consumption. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">I feel privileged to work in an environment that offers an abundance of human and material resources of quality to address meaningful projects and to conduct exciting and innovative research. I think that it is important for young scientists to take the knowledge and solutions they developed and bring them back to their origins, in my case Latin America. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">For instance, in Bolivia, we do not have a continuous supply of water, which impacts our poorer citizens the most. I think that the work I have done can help make a difference. Technology that has been developed in advanced economies can be brought to developing countries and make an impact on their economies and quality of life. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>

analytics demand forecasting environment ibm research - Ireland smarter cities smarter water Using analytics to get smart about water

Profile of a scientist: Ernesto Arandia Ernesto Arandia , a data scientist with the IBM Smarter Water team in Dublin, Ireland, grew up half ...

Analytics helping cities and citizens smartly manage water metering

12:00 AM N1000 0

<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Real-time data on water usage benefits providers and end users</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Editor’s note: This article is by <u><a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=ie-bradley.eck">Bradley Eck</a></u>, IBM Research-Ireland’s Smarter Cities Technology Centre manager in Dublin.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftOGuXArfu269FEnzhnak4m4_XfKe5sd28Zl2C25lvs_VwFXggiGSMFBiOYBlpyMcaQaAStmY5LPIHjo7IpJ4xci5bd0eAtBMBQ-RiGTnbvXgzS0K2uraa05kpz81NLQjhZheu6FkZiE/s1600/bradley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftOGuXArfu269FEnzhnak4m4_XfKe5sd28Zl2C25lvs_VwFXggiGSMFBiOYBlpyMcaQaAStmY5LPIHjo7IpJ4xci5bd0eAtBMBQ-RiGTnbvXgzS0K2uraa05kpz81NLQjhZheu6FkZiE/s1600/bradley.jpg" /></a></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">A faucet that drips just once per second wastes 2,700 gallons of water, annually. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">My<span style="color: black;"> Water and Environment team is developing tools and methodologies, as part of an EU-funded project called </span><u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/">iWIDGET</a></span></u>,<span style="color: black;"> to manage urban water demand by reducing waste like leaky taps. </span></span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET links 9 expert </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/partners/partner-responsibilities.html">partners</a></span></u><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> together to look at how analytics and smart meters can help cities and their citizens get real-time data on their water and related energy usage – with the aim of improving the management of urban water demand by reducing waste, and improving utilities’ understanding of end-user demand, and ultimately reducing customer water and energy costs. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/images/us__en_us__water__info1__300x170.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/images/us__en_us__water__info1__300x170.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/us__en_us__water__water_infographic_031512.pdf">Download Infographic</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">provides householders with easily accessible information that will allow them to make decisions on how to reduce water usage, and thus, their water bills. Plus, as utilities will have better visibility on their customers’ usage, they will be able to more-accurately forecast demand – and send their customers alerts if a leak is suspected. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Building iWidget</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">For our part, my team in Dublin focused on iWIDGET’s system architecture to improve a utility’s planning, operation, and management of real-time sensor data, and developed analytics around the high-resolution consumption data. <span style="color: black;">Not an easy task, as this involves noisy raw data and dozens of third party systems and analytical tools. </span>So, we built an API for the entire system that connects and interfaces with each partner’s components.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyk2B60p89Yp3351YtSTYgoziNAAUPOtRY4Vm73HYRQEuY45gVsLzhAsERn2i38U1hnt4GIONBaM8neVhdGQa9NqwgjfHrO0KJWdnfiKhTflqkTS8U8G-bPev-NWrZyLJSY7_QeP5oLgv/s1600/mobile_app.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyk2B60p89Yp3351YtSTYgoziNAAUPOtRY4Vm73HYRQEuY45gVsLzhAsERn2i38U1hnt4GIONBaM8neVhdGQa9NqwgjfHrO0KJWdnfiKhTflqkTS8U8G-bPev-NWrZyLJSY7_QeP5oLgv/s1600/mobile_app.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">iWidget on the iPhone</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Some of the components can be accessed via mobile applications. Meter Replacement, for example, looks at the history of readings and meter type to determine the best time to replace their meters. Another app focuses on pump scheduling, where real time data from smart meters feed in to a pumping plan that helps reduce energy costs.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET system trials have started in Portugal, Greece and the UK, and will conclude in 2015. The envisaged outcome of the iWIDGET project is increased interoperability between water information systems at the European Union and national levels, and overall improved efficiency of water resource management.<span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">For more information on the project please visit the</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">iWIDGET project website</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">, or join our group on</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/FP7-project-iWIDGET-smart-meters-4835109" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">LinkedIn</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">, </span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">or follow</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/iWIDGET_FP7" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">@iWIDGET_FP7</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">on Twitter.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div>

Analytics helping cities and citizens smartly manage water metering

ibm research - Ireland iwidget mobile application development smarter water utilities Analytics helping cities and citizens smartly manage water metering

Real-time data on water usage benefits providers and end users Editor’s note: This article is by Bradley Eck , IBM Research-Ireland’s Smarte...