Kyle Onda

Kyle Onda is the Data Architect for the Internet of Water, and is thrilled to play a role in cataloging water data and standards and developing tools to simplify the process of making water data discoverable, accessible, and interoperable.

Kyle is a trained environmental engineer, urban planner, environmental public health professional, and social scientist who has spent a 12-year academic and professional career working with data characterizing many aspects of water, the natural and built environments, and people. In doing so, he has addressed a wide range of pressing policy questions at scales ranging from local land use decisions to international infrastructure finance. As such, he is familiar with the perspectives and needs of a large variety of users and providers of water data.

In a dynamic career that has somehow always been intimately connected with water, he has: sampled surface waters for physical, chemical, and biological parameters for state agencies; managed survey fieldwork collecting data about rural and urban drinking water systems and their customers; consulted on urbanization research projects associated with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank; and provided research design, data management and statistical analyses for studies of US coastal hazards policies. He also serves as a statistician for Valor Water Analytics, where he analyzes customer-level water meter data to help utilities understand how their customers react to prices, information, and weather. Throughout these endeavors Kyle has come to understand that finding and integrating relevant data from various sources is a significant bottleneck in converting data into actionable information, and is very excited to help others make this easier in all ways possible!

Kyle is a PhD Candidate in City & Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill and also holds Master’s degrees in City & Regional Planning and Public Health from UNC and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Stanford.