Presentation AWRA 2019

Skillful and adaptive management of water resources in the 21st century requires an advanced and open water data infrastructure. While water data have been collected by federal, state, and local agencies for decades, much of it is not open or following FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Currently, water data are collected by different agencies, for different purposes, at different scales, and are scattered across multiple platforms using different standards. This limits their ability to be integrated and put to additional use in a timely manner to answer even basic questions about our river basins and aquifers in a timely way, namely: how much water is there, what is its quality and how is it being used. A broad coordinating effort is needed to convene and consolidate this fragmented system to ensure that data can be discovered and shared across platforms to reduce uncertainties and costly inefficiencies in water decision-making as water resources become more constrained. The Internet of Water (IoW) is designed to provide coordination to the governance and technical standards needed for much of our water data to become FAIR. The IoW envisions a world engaged in sustainable water resource management enabled by open, shared, and integrated water data and information. The components of the IoW already exist (producers, hubs, and users), but the work of sharing and integrating data between them is not a primary mission for any of them. It is the mission of the IoW is to build a dynamic and voluntary network of communities and institutions to facilitate the opening, sharing, and integration of water data and information.