On Wednesday, April 25, we organized the session “AI for Water and Climate” at the Dutch AI Congress. Chris Karman of DigiShape and Arnold Lobbrecht of Hydrologic showed examples of how climate change is already causing extremes that we cannot cope with in time. Think of the July 2021 water bomb over southern Limburg, Belgium and Germany, which caused immense damage in our country and even claimed many lives abroad. Or the extended periods of drought that put pressure on access to fresh water.
It is not that there is less or more rain, Arnold explained, but it falls more often in the same place, leaving other places drier. He then showed what the predictions are for the future and how this is being calculated with all hands.
It’s not going fast enough
But, Arnold also explained: it’s not going fast enough. At the rate climate change is occurring, we can use traditional climate models to predict less and less accurately what will happen when and where in the future. We need more computing power, as well as new techniques, to prepare for scenarios we can no longer predict with our old, historical data. Because, session participants also suggested, the more data you have about a given situation, the better you can calculate for it. Only: if we have to wait to calculate until we have enough data about global warming, then the harm is already done.
More knowledge of AI and Machine Learning needed in the water sector
The application of AI and Machine Learning can help with this. By collaborating with AI specialists and industry in the ‘Water and Climate’ living lab, we can increase our joint computing power and come up with new, innovative solutions that benefit society as a whole. We in the water sector have a unique wealth of global water and climate data available for research. From local data from IoT networks to Earth observation data from satellites and outputs from large climate models. We are looking for AI researchers who want to help the water sector solve practical water management problems in the Netherlands and internationally. The ambition is not only to prepare the Netherlands for future climate challenges, but also to play a leading role in addressing these issues globally.
More information about the NL AIC domain ‘Water and Climate’.
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