Waterplan Advances Global Freshwater Availability Modeling using Machine Learning in Partnership with Suntory Global Innovation Center Limited Institute for Water Science and Kurita Group
Due to the impacts of climate change and unbridled human consumption, freshwater availability is dwindling. This poses a significant risk to businesses and the global economy, as water scarcity can lead to water crises that threaten production, financial stability, and social well-being.
In this context, Waterplan has partnered with the Suntory Institute for Water Science and Kurita Group to Advance Freshwater Availability Modeling Techniques using Deep Learning and Remote Sensing. WaterPlan and Suntory Institute for Water Science presented their findings at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting.
Predicting streamflows in ungauged basins has been identified as one of the 23 unresolved problems in Hydrology. Traditional hydrological models, calibrated for specific catchments, tend to underperform when applied to new, unseen, and ungauged basins. “The performance of our model, regionalized for Japan, exceeds the traditional processed-based models as well as the benchmarks established in the field by a few foundational research articles such as those by Kratzert et al. (2019) and Arsenault et al. (2023),” said Hemant Servia, Senior Water Scientist at Waterplan.
In terms of modeling changes in groundwater levels, ground-based observational measurements are often sparse and irregularly sampled, making direct observation and traditional modeling methods unfeasible at many locations. “We are developing and implementing the finest resolution satellite-based groundwater level model to date”, mentioned Samuel Saxe, Senior Water Scientist at Waterplan.
”We are incredibly grateful for our partnership with Suntory’s Institute for Water Science and Kurita Group,” said Nicolas Guerra-Mondragon, Head of Alliances and Strategic Accounts at Waterplan. “No one company or organization can tackle the climate and water crisis alone, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration to achieve water security.”
Waterplan’s developments in surface water and groundwater modeling will help organizations have greater visibility over the accelerating global freshwater crisis to mitigate climate-driven financial risks. Waterplan will integrate these models into their software platform, enabling businesses to more effectively monitor freshwater availability and avoid water-driven interruptions to business continuity. Additionally, Waterplan seeks to assess the feasibility of utilizing the outputs of these models to quantify the impact of human interventions.
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