The opportunities of Big Data for Water Security
As coordinator of the Big Data Analytics and Transboundary Water Management Collaboration for Southern Africa, the Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) works to provide important training sessions for both the teams conducting research for the Collaboration and the broader development sector. These training sessions began in 2019 with an eight-part training series with experts from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
SWP followed these trainings with a second webinar series in the spring of 2020 with experts from IBM Research Africa. The “Crash Course on Big Data for Water Security” included seven seminars on the potential for big data analytics to enhance water security, with a special focus on East Africa and Southern Africa.
The seminar series concluded with a presentation by SWP Chief of Party Dr. Rodolfo Camacho about SWP’s work to improve transboundary river management in the Mara River Basin, shared between Kenya and Tanzania.
To view a full playlist of each webinar, click here.
| Seminar | Topic | Presenter | Background |
| Seminar 1 | Introducing big data analytics and machine learning | Naweed Khan | Research Scientist, IBM Research-Africa (Johannesburg) |
| Seminar 2 | Geospatiotemporal data integration at scale | Dr. Bruce Elmegreen | Research Scientist, IBM Research (New York) |
| Seminar 3 | Demonstration/Tutorial of the PAIRS platform, from simple queries to algorithms | Dr. Bruce Elmegreen | Research Scientist, IBM Research (New York) |
| Seminar 4 | Introducing blockchain with examples | Nelson Bore | Research Engineer, IBM Research Africa (SA) |
| Seminar 5 | Demonstrating the use of blockchain technology in water resource management | Nelson Bore | Research Engineer, IBM Research Africa (SA) |
| Seminar 6 | Big data analytics in the context of data quality challenges & the potential for transformation of water resource management through current and upcoming technological innovations | Dr. Levente Klein | Research Scientist, Data Science and Internet of Things, TJ Watson Research Centre (White Plains, N.Y.) |
| Seminar 7 | Addressing Data Needs and Uncertainty in Developing Transboundary Water Allocations Plans- The Mara River Basin | Dr. Rodolfo Camacho | Project Director, USAID Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP), Winrock International (Washington) |
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