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Using Big Data Analytics for Transboundary Water Management
›Guest Contributor // Water Security for a Resilient World // July 28, 2020 // By Clara Bocchino & Knowles Adkisson
Southern Africa has experienced drought-flood cycles for the past decade that strain the ability of any country to properly manage water resources. This dynamic is exacerbated by human drivers such as the heavy reliance of sectors such as mining and agriculture on groundwater and surface water, as well as subsistence agriculture in rural areas along rivers. These factors have progressively depleted natural freshwater systems and contributed to an accumulation of sediment in river systems. In a region where two or more countries share many of the groundwater and surface resources, water security cuts across the socioeconomic divide and is both a rural and urban issue. For example, the City of Cape Town had to heavily ration all water uses in 2017 and 2018, as its dams were drying up.
New technology, however, brings new opportunities for improved water governance. In Southern Africa, university researchers and government agencies are joining with international development groups and the private sector to explore how big data analytics can improve the management of aquifers that are shared by two or more countries.
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Real-time Data Could Save More People from Covid-19
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It’s clear that the virus that causes Covid-19 travels freely. It needs no visa, having breached many points of entry. Experts at Imperial College London estimate that “in the absence of interventions, Covid-19 would have resulted in 7 billion infections and 40 million deaths globally this year.” Now is the time for governments to get ahead of the curve and respond to the emergency. It’s time to take a whole-of-government approach to strengthen testing at points of entry and institute mass testing at various points as South Korea did.
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A Conversation with Rodolfo Camacho on Using Data for Water Security
›Friday Podcasts // Water Security for a Resilient World // Water Stories (Podcast Series) // March 20, 2020 // By Eliana Guterman
While there are many uses for global data sets and innovative data analysis technologies, the most important thing, Rodolfo Camacho said in this week’s Water Stories podcast, is not analyzing the data. It’s the collaboration among countries sharing data. Camacho, Project Director at Winrock International and Chief of Party for USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP), sat down with Lauren Herzer Risi, Project Director of the Environmental Change & Security Program to discuss the importance of big data and machine learning on improving water security. -
Wim Zwijnenburg on Using Data to Visualize the Impacts of Conflict on the Environment
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Through open source information, remote sensing, and existing data, we can have a better sense of how conflict impacts the environment and how it then impacts people depending on the environment, said Wim Zwijnenburg, a Humanitarian Disarmament Project Leader for the Dutch peace organization, PAX, in this week’s Friday Podcast. Wim sat down for an interview with ECSP’s Amanda King at the first International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding, hosted at the University of California, Irvine, in October 2019. -
Foresight for Action | Improving Predictive Capabilities for Extreme Weather and Water Events in Pakistan
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Pakistan ranks eighth on the list of countries most affected by extreme weather events (1998–2017 data), according to the 2019 Global Risk Index. With increasing global temperatures, severe weather and water events, like monsoons and droughts, are likely to become even more frequent and extreme in the future. Since the 1960s, Pakistan has observed changes in temperature and precipitation. By the end of the century, Pakistan’s temperatures are expected to be significantly higher than the global average.
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Foresight for Action | Weathering the Storm: Improving Predictive Capabilities for Extreme Weather and Water Events in the Caribbean
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For two weeks, Hurricane Dorian, one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall in the Pacific, decimated large swaths of the Caribbean displacing 70,000 people and killing at least 50. Natural disasters like Hurricane Dorian in the Caribbean have only been worsening over the last decade, a trend often attributed to warming oceanic and atmospheric temperatures.
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By, for, and of the People: How Citizen Science Enhances Water Security
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In the Peruvian Andes, where cropland is irrigated and water availability is variable at best, knowledge of highland hydrology is crucial to survival. However, until recently, the locals did not have adequate information to be able to use their water efficiently. So the community worked with a nonprofit to develop a non-specialist/non-researcher run data-gathering project to monitor the water in the region to optimize its use: in short, they developed a citizen science project.
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Foresight for Action | Ecosystem Degradation, Transnational Migration, and Political Instability: Three Main Tipping Points for East Africa
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The Horn of Africa faces critical security and climate risks. Persistent droughts have precipitated the onset of food insecurity and waterborne disease, while heavy rain events such as Cyclone Sagar have caused widespread flooding, mudslides, and wind damage. These challenges are increasing in severity against a backdrop of changing demographic trends—including rapid population growth, increased migration, and urbanization—and power struggles both within and between countries in the region.
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