Deep Learning Waterways for Rural Infrastructure Development
Matthew Pierson, Zia Mehrabi · 2024-11-18
AI-powered mapping with WaterNet improves waterway detection in underserved regions, aiding rural infrastructure development and humanitarian planning.
Matthew Pierson, Zia Mehrabi. 2024-11-18. Deep Learning Waterways for Rural Infrastructure Development. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.13590 (AI & Environment Resource Hub; record paper-029; collection snapshot 2026-09-15).
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform how water is managed. Yet, these emerging opportunities raise critical considerations around issues such as data governance, energy use, and the environmental footprint of digital infrastructure. To explore these challenges and opportunities, IWRA is launching a new webinar series: "The Promises and Challenges of AI, Data Centres & Freshwater Futures". Bringing together experts from around the world, the series examines the intersection of emerging technologies and water sustainability.
youtube.com
Shared topics: Research tools and geospatial methods; Energy and electricity; Water; Oceans and coasts
This AI-powered tool uses AI to detect ocean oil pollution and link it to their most likely source. It can find oil slicks in satellite imagery using machine learning models and identify nearby vessels and offshore oil platforms that may be responsible for those slicks.
Source metadata availablefree
Shared topics: Energy and electricity; Water; Oceans and coasts; Built environment and infrastructure
Water use by data centers is routinely reported as a single footprint, but water is consumed through two physically distinct pathways: at the site for cooling and in the power system that generates electricity. We mapped both pathways for 472 U.S. hyperscale facilities by linking facility locations to electricity regions, hydrologic basins, and water-stress data.
arXiv
Shared topics: Energy and electricity; Water; Oceans and coasts; Built environment and infrastructure
Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, a data center somewhere uses water to cool its servers. Most people have no idea, and neither do the utilities supplying that water. Newsha Ajami, a hydrologist and founding director of Stanford's Governance for Risk, Resilience, Recovery Program (GR3), has spent years tracing water through the hidden seams of the economy, from the electricity charging your phone to the chips powering the AI boom.
