|
| |
Drought-ravaged California turns to tech for help |
 |
| 2014/3/22 |
(CNN) -- Sometimes it takes a disaster to inspire innovation.
There is a major drought in California. It's not the first state to face a water shortage recently, and it's definitely not the first time California has had to battle drought, but it could drag on for a decade and have a significant impact on all Americans who rely on California farms for food.
Residents, the government and the agriculture industry are hoping for some high-tech solutions for a very old problem.
Surprisingly, given its California location, Silicon Valley isn't a hotbed of drought and water research. Most local investors and venture capitalists aren't looking to invest in something that will take at least 10 years to pay off. They want software, cheap-to-make mobile apps that gather and monetize data about people, and consumer goods like phones, smart watches and futuristic thermostats.
"Water doesn't always fit the venture capital model," said Scott Bryan, COO of Imagine H2O, a San Francisco nonprofit focused on helping water-technology companies get their ideas off the ground.
As the United Nations observes World Water Day on Saturday, it's fitting that the biggest water research and innovation hubs are scattered around the globe. Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands and Israel are global leaders in the industry out of geographic necessity. In the United States, there are water-research centers clustered in Fresno and San Diego in California, and in Fort Collins, Colorado, Boston and Milwaukee.
In Milwaukee, the roots of the water industry go back 100 years and are tied to the city's big breweries. Now there are 150 water-tech companies in the region, and five of the 11 largest companies in the world either have their headquarters or a major operation there.
Green roofs and tree trays
Dean Amhaus runs The Water Council, which has created the Global Water Center, a Milwaukee complex with almost 100,000 square feet of research space, labs, offices and conference rooms. Researchers and entrepreneurs come together to collaborate on water-technology issues.
The space houses intriguing startups such as Hanging Gardens, which builds "green" roofs that help collect storm water. There also are products that help detect leaks, waste-water treatment research, and tools for better tracking water usage and waste.
Agriculture accounts for 70% of all our water usage, so much of the current technology focuses on helping farms use water more efficiently. Solutions range from the high-tech, like using big data and infrared aerial monitoring to give farmers more precise water information, to the simpler but ingenious, such as specialized plastic trays that fit around the bases of young trees.
Imagine H2O's latest class has a crop of promising agriculture technology companies. WatrHub wants to be the Bloomberg Terminal of agriculture. The Toronto-based company was founded by a former Microsoft employee and a former Apple employee. They're using their experience working with big data sets to scrape together all the available information that might be useful to water and wastewater systems in North America.
Getting better information is also what inspired the two founders of WellIntel. They have invented a monitor that gathers real-time data from water wells using sonar. Farms or rural homes with wells on their property can choose to keep their information private or share it anonymously with WellIntel, which uses the data to help government agencies and others see the bigger picture of water shortages.
News Source : CNN |
|
| Contacts |
|
Company : CNN
Country : United States
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
-
AGRI WEEK TOKYO 2023
RX Japan’s J AGRI Spotlights Kyushu’s Potential as a Global Livestock Farming Hub
-
-
-
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
