Coca-Cola donates proprietary water data used in manufacturing and bottling to major non-profit. Hopes to collaborate on managing water resources and lower risks to its operations.
“Since the early 2000s, the Coca-Cola Company has undergone a radical evolution in its approach to water. As the…
Emergent Futures Tumblelog
This is the Tumblelog of Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle - Futurists from Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia. Go to Emergent Futures to see more or follow on Twitter at
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Reblogged from smarterplanet|187 notes |# Comments
A startup called Liquid Robotics has a growing fleet of autonomous vehicles that rove the ocean collecting data from a variety of onboard sensors.
via 2020:
Reblogged from smarterplanet|131 notes |# Comments
Made in IBM Labs: New Flood Prediction Technology Simulates Rivers 100x Faster than Real Time (by IBMSmarterWater)
Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States , but traditionally flood prediction methods are focused only on the main stems of the largest rivers — overlooking extensive tributary networks where flooding actually starts, and where flash floods threaten lives and property.
IBM’s new flood prediction technology can simulate tens of thousands of river branches at a time and could scale further to predict the behavior of millions of branches simultaneously. By coupling analytics software with advanced weather simulation models, such as IBM’s Deep Thunder, municipalities and disaster response teams could make emergency plans and pinpoint potential flood areas on a river.
Reblogged from smarterplanet|174 notes |# Comments
Chinese team develop fuel cell that can clean water as it generates electricity | Physorg.com
Yanbiao Liu and his colleagues from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have succeeded in building a device capable of both cleaning wastewater and producing electricity from it. Using light as an energy source the team created a photo-catalytic fuel cell that used a titanium dioxide nanotube-array anode and a cathode based on platinum. The light energy degrades the organic material found in the wastewater and in the process generates electrons which pass through the cathode converting it into electricity. The team has published its results on Water Science & Technology.
Reblogged from smarterplanet|204 notes |# Comments
You’ve heard of paint by numbers? Get ready for feed-the-world by numbers. Dutch agricultural company PlantLab wants to change almost everything you know about growing plants. Instead of outdoors, they want farms to be in skyscrapers, warehouses, or underground using hydroponics or other forms of controlled environments. Instead of sunlight they use red and blue LEDs. Water? They need just 10% of the traditional requirements. At every stage of their high tech process, PlantLab monitors thousands of details (163,830 reports per second!) with advanced sensors to create the perfect environment for each individual type of crop. In short, they create a high tech ‘plant paradise’. See it in action in the videos below, followed by plenty of pics of their tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. PlantLab’s revolutionary approach to agriculture may be able to leverage math and science to create a better food supply for the world’s escalating population. Fresher, local, more efficient…and they supposedly taste better too!
Reblogged from smartercities|374 notes |# Comments
Tube City: A sustainable water-purifying city for Delhi
Tube City is a design for a 21 km long tube running over the Yamuna River in the city of Delhi. Conceived by Abhinay Sharma, the tube itself would be a living sustainable city with in-house farms and residential, commercial and office zones. A central metro spine and road network would keep the tube well connected, and the structure could also draw in water from the river for purification and consumption.
(via Ufahari)
via poptech:
Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 countries containing half the world’s people. The overpumping of aquifers for irrigation temporarily inflates food production, creating a food production bubble that bursts when the aquifer is depleted.
How Will China’s Food Supply Weather the Year of Drought?
Parts of central China, including the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, are experiencing the lowest levels of rainfall in 50 years. The area in red is affected by serious drought, and the brown indicates extreme drought. The parched areas also happen to include much of China’s main rice producing regions, which are in the early stages of their growing season. So for the second time in a year, a major grain crop in China is now at risk due to a shortage of water. So far no warnings of the seriousness of the FAO’s February declaration on winter wheat have been issued. But anecdotal reports indicate some worries
Full Story: Time
Reblogged from smartercities|91 notes |# Comments
Results from a pilot conducted in the city of Dubuque, Iowa. Quote found at “Dubuque, Iowa and IBM Combine Analytics, Cloud Computing and Community Engagement to Conserve Water” (via horizonwatching)
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89,090 gallons were saved among 151 households over nine weeks, and if extrapolated to a full year, this would be a savings of 514,742 gallons in total, or 3,409 gallons per household annually.
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Reblogged from climateadaptation|36 notes |# Comments