A new set of environmental initiatives pioneering water solutions will be scaled through the IBM Sustainability Accelerator to benefit local communities across the globe. The 2023 IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report identified that 3.3 billion people live in areas vulnerable to significant impacts from climate change1. With a commitment of $30 million worth of technology and services by IBM through the end of 2025, the program is adding five new projects focused on water management, offering IBM technologies, such as watsonx,
and an ecosystem of experts.
- The University of Sharjah will build a model and application to monitor and forecast water access conditions in the Middle East and North Africa, to help support communities in arid and semi-arid regions with limited renewable internal freshwater resources.
- The University of Chicago Trust in Bangalore will aggregate water quality information in India; build and deploy tools designed to democratize access to water quality information and help improve water resource management for key government and nonprofit organizations.
- The University of Illinois will develop an AI geospatial foundation model to help predict rain fall and flood forecasting in mountain headwaters across the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S.
- Instituto IGUÁ will create a cloud-based platform for sanitation infrastructure planning in Brazil, alongside local utility providers and governments.
- Water Corporation will design a self-administered water quality testing system for Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.
The IBM Sustainability Accelerator program is already supporting communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia on sustainable agriculture and clean energy efforts.
1 AR6 Synthesis Report, A.2.2, from IPCC, 2023: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34, doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001).