The symposium committee is pleased to announce that IBM will be joining the symposium as our 2013 Keynote Sponsor.
Building on their Global Smarter Water initiative, IBM is pleased to sponsor our 2013 keynote speaker.
Carey E. Hidaka from IBM’s Smarter Water Solutions will be our keynote speaker for the 2013 ISA water/wastewater symposium. He will be presenting his keynote address on Wednesday, August 7, 2013 at 8:00am.
This year’s keynote will be entitled “Using Data from Municipal Water/Wastewater SCADA Systems (and Other Sources) to Make Smarter Operational, Maintenance, and Infrastructure Investment Decisions”
The keynote introduces the concept of Smarter Water Management and uses examples to illustrate how innovative application of data analysis and visualization can play a pivotal role in addressing industry challenges. It leverages existing and new data sources and applies analysis / visualization / optimization tools, aggregating siloed data and creating situational awareness and insights to make better and timelier decisions. Better decision making, whether in treating/conveying water or in repairing/replacing infrastructure prior to catastrophic failure, ultimately improves water/wastewater operations and efficiencies.
Fresh water, a fundamental requirement for life on the planet, is becoming a scarce resource as the world’s population grows and competition increases for available water. It’s estimated that by 2050 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, stressing an already fragile infrastructure that provides basic city services like transportation, water, power, wastewater collection and treatment.
Against this backdrop, the world’s cities will require new and innovative approaches to address these significant challenges. Business-as-usual and traditional engineering solutions won’t be enough.
Smarter Water Management, through the smarter use of data from its many available sources, facilitates planning processes and maintenance and repair operations to better manage and forecast future water/wastewater needs and requirements. Smarter Water Management, in combination with the discovery of new sources of fresh water, can help address the impending water challenges facing the planet.