Ofwat has announced that Northumbrian Water has been awarded funding to help provide improved insights into river health and water quality.
IT consultant, Cognizant, is expected to help Northumbrian Water to deliver this project by aggregating data from multiple sources, using the AI and machine learning (ML) expertise of its Cognizant Ocean business group. Cognizant Ocean and Northumbrian Water expect to better interpret river health trends and pollution patterns at scale by reviewing existing data from various environmental sensors, satellite imagery, and other relevant and available sources.
The Ofwat Innovation Fund aims to grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, enabling it to better meet the evolving needs of customers, society, and the environment. Ofwat are delivering a series of innovation competitions that water companies and others can enter.
There are multiple factors that can impact river health, including agriculture, road runoffs, storm overflows and more. Further, different parts of a river might be affected by different sources of pollution, and responsibility of river health and impact is spread across multiple actors and stakeholders. To address the complex challenges that impact waterway health, Cognizant Ocean plans to also support the efforts to understand what constitutes healthy waterbodies and explore the stakeholder ecosystem around river health, including the challenges and needs of water companies, local communities, and industries.
This engagement is expected to lay the groundwork for utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve the understanding of river health, and support Northumbrian Water in their work to provide drinking water supply and a thriving waterbody ecosystem not only for its existing 2.7 million customers, but also for future generations.
“Our long-term vision is to use data insights to address one of the biggest challenges we face – reducing river pollution. As such, we are making a £1.7bn investment in our wastewater and environmental programs from 2025 to 2030. In addition to spills of diluted sewage that occur from storm overflows at times of heavy rainfall, we know that many other factors can impact river water quality but what is less well known is the exact source, concentration and impact of other pollutants. In looking to work with Cognizant Ocean, we aim to improve our insights into river health, helping us optimize our investments and form targeted partnerships to better work together to improve the quality of UK rivers,” said Nigel Watson, CIO, Northumbrian Water. “This initial project is designed to serve as a groundwork for future explorations, paving the way for the development of sophisticated and nuanced representations of river health and water quality, based on AI and ML technology.”
“In our ongoing work with the UK water sector, we aim to develop AI-driven tools that will help water companies, communities and charities better understand and improve catchment management to secure drinking water and thriving ecosystems for future generations,” said Stig Martin Fiskå, Global Head of Cognizant Ocean. “Innovating together with the wider ecosystem, we will give our rivers and shores a digital voice. Our anticipated collaboration with Northumbrian Water, in particular, aims to help improve the quality and biodiversity of the rivers in the North East of England and lay a strong foundation for other water systems organizations to leverage our expertise for the same.”
Cognizant Ocean focuses on the ocean industries with the aim to decarbonize the oceans and maximize the opportunities offered by the ocean economies. It leverages cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions to drive sustainability, efficiency, and growth in the ocean industries.
