2020 AI Hackathon Smart Cities
AquaDetox: The Future of Water Safety
AquaDetox uses AI via deep neural networks and a system of chemical sensors to prioritize and prevent hazardous chemicals from spreading further in the water.
A staggering 2.1 billion lives worldwide cannot access safe water. In perspective, one out of four of the world’s 7.7 billion lives become endangered due to a simple lack of safe drinking water, an unfathomable amount of lives at risk for such a basic necessity.
In the United States alone, between 9 to 45 million lives are affected by exposure to unsafe drinking water. Specifically, in Flint, Michigan, 30,000 children were exposed to dangerous water containing lead, the effects of which consist of permanent brain damage that can be lethal.
Persistent harmful red tide algae blooms during 2017–2018 produced toxins that killed fish, sea turtles, manatees, birds, and dolphins. The airborne toxins released from the water also caused respiratory problems miles in from the coast. As big agricultural corporations remain unchecked by environmental law in Florida, harmful algae blooms such as these, caused by Florida waters as waste sites for chemical fertilizers, have become increasingly common in recent years.
So, how do we address a problem of such magnitude? A practical solution to this question has often been elusive, as it must be both efficient and effective while being self-sufficient. The world needs to do better — and we certainly can.
Introducing AquaDetox
With AquaDetox, we can efficiently provide safe water for cities and their communities. AquaDetox is an Artificial Intelligence system that analyzes data from chemical sensors located throughout a city’s irrigation network, as well as its surrounding water sources.
To analyze the data from these sensors, AquaDetox uses deep learning to classify types of pollutants and determine the severity of each pollutant from its concentration in the water and the frequency of identification across sensors from multiple locations. As a result, AquaDetox would prioritize each harmful chemical’s impact while predicting the source of these chemicals.
Current chemical sensors can detect heavy metals such as lead and mercury, as well as other forms of contamination like nitrogen and phosphates. The latter would be especially helpful in Florida where these chemicals, which are used as chemical fertilizer, cause the rapid growth of harmful algae.
Why AI?
Although methods determining the safety and the extent required to clean water currently exists, these outdated methods are limited in their effectiveness. Our current system for detecting water levels is limited and flawed as they are rather primitive. Now, we can only identify the spread of harmful chemicals — instead of its source.
However, through the use of AI, everything could change. With AI, our system can analyze more data at a time than a human being. This is crucial because the AI uses various data: from the concentrations of toxic chemicals, their locations, and their recurrence. In doing so, chemical sensors can collect data to implement into deep neural networks. Thus, determining the source of toxic chemicals. Through this information, we can prevent the further spread of chemicals. This can be done in these simple steps:
1. Gathering our Data: Chemical sensors gather data from the source of toxic substances, precisely the types of chemicals and their concentrations
2. Preventing the Spread of Deadly Chemicals: Clean the origin of water pollutants to prevent further spread of contaminants
3. Identifying the Spread of Chemicals: Use our system of chemical sensors to determine the extent of chemicals in the pipes (matching their identifications found at the origin of toxic substances)
4. Targeting + Cleaning the Spread of Contaminants: By using this information, we can discover the location of the pipes with unsafe water that needs cleaning
Through this, we are proactive instead of reactive when it comes to water purification, protecting cities and communities worldwide — targeting the source of water pollution instead of its spread, therefore keeping the horses in the barn rather than closing the gates after they had left.
Real-world Application:
In 2017 and 2018, toxic red algae blooms in Florida caught national attention as it was particularly persistent in these years. This growth, spurred by the unregulated dumping of phosphorus and nitrogen (chemical fertilizers) into freshwater systems and the coast. Public health was threatened by this pollution, and vast die-offs of marine life occurred. The water contamination also caused the release of airborne toxins. Big corporations and developers also used these waters for waste management. Still, the people from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the Atlantic Coast experienced the terrible effects.
With AquaDetox, we can effectively confront this problem. Using data from available chemical sensors for water monitoring, AquaDetox would determine the most effective location to purify the water — cutting off sources of chemical dumping and algae growth.
These harmful chemical fertilizers often make their way into the water through agricultural runoff and thus can be hard to track. AquaDetox would identify toxic algae blooms through the chemicals in their release of toxins with chemical sensors. AquaDetox would then trace the recurrence and concentrations to determine the pollutants’ sources and locate where to focus water purification efforts to ensure that the water is made entirely safe.
Final Takeaways
Toxic algae in Florida is just one example of how AquaDetox can be implemented in cities and communities to save lives efficiently and effectively. Imagine if AquaDetox was used to purify the lead-ridden water in Flint, Michigan, or purify the Ganges River’s industrial waste in India. Millions of lives would be saved due to the immediate and valuable outputs using AI.
Every day, water grows more polluted and more dangerous. But it doesn’t have to be this way. With AquaDetox, we can revolutionize how harmful chemicals are tracked and ultimately eliminated, saving millions of lives.
